Southern Missouri Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBC) Q1 2025 Results Conference Call October 29, 2024 10:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Stefan Chkautovich - Chief Financial Officer
Matt Funke - President and Chief Administrative Officer

Conference Call Participants

Matt Olney - Stephens
Kelly Motta - KBW
Andrew Liesch - Piper Sandler

Operator

Hello, and welcome to the Southern Missouri Bancorp, Inc. Earnings Conference Call. My name is Alex. I'll be coordinating the call today. [Operator Instructions]

I'll now hand it over to your host, Stefan Chkautovich CFO, to begin. Please go ahead.

Stefan Chkautovich

Thank you, Alex. Good morning, everyone. This is Stefan Chkautovich, CFO with Southern Missouri Bancorp. Thank you for joining us today. The purpose of this call is to review the information and data presented in our quarterly earnings release dated Monday, October 28, 2024, and to take your questions.

We may make certain forward-looking statements during today's call, and we may refer you to our cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements contained in the press release. I'm joined on the call today by Matt Funke, President and Chief Administrative Officer.

Matt will lead off our conversation today with some highlights from our most recent quarter.

Matt Funke

Thanks, Stefan, and thanks, everyone. This is Matt Funke, I appreciate you joining us today. I'll start off with some highlights on our financial results for the September quarter, the first quarter of our fiscal year. Quarter-over-quarter, we showed some pressure in profitability as a larger provision for credit losses, an increase in noninterest expense, and lower noninterest income weighed on earnings and profitability.

Offsetting some of this pressure was an increase in net interest income, which stemmed from loan growth and further net interest margin expansion. And despite the lower reported earnings, there were several underlying highlights that caused us to view the quarter favorably and remain optimistic about future periods.

The diluted EPS figure for the current quarter was $1.10, down $0.09 from the linked June 2024 quarter and down $0.06 from the September quarter a year ago. During the quarter, the bank realized onetime cost of $840,000 associated with the performance improvement project reported as legal and professional fees to enhance the bank's operations and revenues.

Recognition of this expense during the quarter reduced after-tax net income by $652,000, diluted EPS by $0.06 and ROA by 6 basis points. At this time, we're still in the early stages of the performance improvement project, but we're looking forward to considering the recommendations in future quarters with the ultimate goal of improving our customer and team member experience and creating greater long-term value for shareholders.