Southern Missouri Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBC) Q2 2025 Earnings Conference Call January 28, 2025 10:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Stefan Chkautovich - CFO
Matt Funke - President and Chief Administrative Officer
Greg Steffens - Chairman and CEO

Conference Call Participants

Matt Olney - Stephens
Andrew Liesch - Piper Sandler
Charlie Driscoll - KBW

Operator

Hello, and welcome to the Southern Missouri Bancorp Earnings Conference Call. My name is Alex and 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. The purpose of this call is to review the information and data presented in our quarterly earnings release dated Monday, January 27, 2024, and to take your questions. We may make certain forward-looking statements during today's call, and we refer you to our cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements contained in the press release.

I'm joined on the call today by Greg Steffens, our Chairman and CEO; and 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 good morning, everyone. This is Matt Funke. Thanks for joining us. I'll start off with some highlights on our financial results for the December quarter, which is the second quarter of our fiscal year. Quarter-over-quarter, earnings and profitability improved due to a larger earning asset base, driving an increase in net interest income in combination with a lower provision for credit losses, and a decrease in non-interest expense. With the earnings and profitability improvement we have seen in the first half of our fiscal year, we feel we have good momentum and see positive trends going into the second half.