Southern Missouri Bancorp Stock

Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Southern Missouri Bancorp Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I will now hand the conference over to Stefan Chkautovich, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Al. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss Southern Missouri Bancorp's results for the first quarter of fiscal 2027. This is Stefan Chkautovich, CFO of Southern Missouri Bancorp. 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 by Greg Steffens, our Chairman and CEO; and Matt Funke, our President and Chief Administrative Officer.

Matt will begin with an overview of the quarter.

Well, thank you, Stefan, and good morning, everyone. We reported another quarter of strong profitability with diluted earnings per share of $1.73 compared with $1.83 in the linked June quarter. Return on average assets was 1.44%. Return on average common equity was 12.7% and tangible book value per share increased 2.3% during the quarter to $48.52. Net interest margin expanded 3 basis points to 3.70% while net interest income increased 3.5% from the linked quarter. Provision for credit losses was $3 million, down $240,000 from the June quarter.

Gross loans increased $64 million or 1.5% during the quarter. Growth remained solid but moderated from last year as we maintained our focus on appropriate credit spreads and full banking relationships. Growth was led by 1-4 family residential real estate, ag production, commercial and industrial, ag real estate and construction and land development loans, partially offset by declines in multifamily and commercial real estate categories. Our 90-day loan pipeline was little changed at $185 million at quarter end, up from $182 million at June 30.

Quarterly loan originations were approximately $296 million, down from $335 million in the June quarter. This was largely driven by a decrease in owner-occupied CRE originations as we prioritized opportunities that met our return and relationship objectives, in addition to decreases in ag real estate and ag production originations due to normal seasonality, with total volume roughly in line with the September of '25 quarter.

We continue to expect mid-single-digit loan growth for fiscal '27, although quarterly results will reflect our normal seasonality. We have begun to see some ag operating line paydowns in October, and we expect that net loan growth will be softer in the second quarter, the December quarter. As a reminder, our third fiscal quarter or the March quarter is historically our softest quarter for net loan growth, reflecting both ag seasonality and the seasonal slowing in residential and commercial real estate lending, typically followed by a seasonal ramp-up in the fourth quarter.

Deposits increased $66 million or 1.5% during the quarter. Certificates of deposit led the increase driven by $95 million of growth in core CDs, partially offset by a $35 million reduction in brokered CDs. Given the meaningful increase in brokered CD rates, Local CDs provided a more cost-effective source of funding. We remain focused on funding loan growth with core customer deposits and deepening full banking relationships.

Non-maturity deposits grew modestly by approximately $6 million. And again, our September quarter is generally one of our toughest from a transaction account balance standpoint. Our new business deposit accounts continued to gain traction, reaching $42 million at September 30. However, that growth was partially offset by the expected runoff of short-term seasonal and transaction-related noninterest-bearing balances held by several larger clients at the end of June.

Our stockholders' equity increased just over $10 million or 1.8% during the quarter despite about a $5 million increase in accumulated other comprehensive loss. We also repurchased approximately 19,000 shares for $1.4 million during the quarter while maintaining our quarterly dividend at $0.27 per share.

I'll turn it over now to Greg for a discussion on credit.

Thanks, Matt, and good morning, everyone. Credit metrics improved modestly during the quarter. Adversely classified loans declined nearly $1 million from the linked quarter to $53 million while remaining stable at approximately 1.2% of gross loans. Nonperforming loans also declined by $1 million to $27 million or 0.6% of gross loans from 0.63% at June 30. Nonperforming assets declined just over $1 million to $32 million or 0.61% of total assets from 0.64% at June 30. We are continuing to work through the agricultural production relationship downgraded to nonaccrual in last year's fourth quarter. And overall, we see positive progress toward resolution on several of our larger nonperforming loans.

Against that backdrop, generally improving credit, performing modifications increased approximately $20 million during the quarter to $51 million, primarily due to the modification of a commercial and industrial loan totaling approximately $21 million. The modification included a modest interest rate concession to support the borrowers' working capital needs associated with a new contract. The loan remains performing, is watch rated and no individual reserve has been established. Given our long-standing relationship with this borrower and our current expectations for its performance, we anticipate the modification will be resolved by the end of fiscal '27.

Our nonowner-occupied commercial real estate concentration declined during the quarter as Tier 1 capital growth outpaced CRE growth. At quarter end, the concentration was approximately 278% at the bank and 266% on a consolidated basis. Agriculture represents approximately 12% of gross loans. Our agricultural customers generally appear to be having a better year. An early planting season and dry fall weather accelerated harvest activity. Rice and corn harvests are complete. Early soybeans are approximately 70% harvested, double crop soybeans are approximately 50% harvested. Cotton is also approximately 50% harvested.

Lenders are reporting average to above average yields on many of our crops, particularly irrigated acreage and current or contracted prices for corn, soybeans, rice and cotton are generally above the assumptions we used under spring underwriting. Higher seed, fuel, fertilizer, chemical, interest and equipment costs continue to pressure farm profitability, but stronger yields and commodity pricing should support improved repayment capacity compared with last year. Our loan officers are not currently reporting projected shortfalls for the '26 crop year. And most customers appear well positioned to pay as agreed, although working capital positions will remain an important focus through year-end.

We continue to monitor watch list ag credits closely and our lenders are completing crop and livestock inspection summaries and preparing for the upcoming renewal cycle.

Stefan, would you provide additional details on our financial performance.

Thanks, Greg. Net interest margin was 3.70%, up 3 basis points from the linked quarter. Fair value accretion and liability premium amortization contributed 5 basis points to margin compared to 3 basis points in the June quarter. The increase in fair value accretion was primarily caused by the payoff of a loan carrying about a $500,000 credit mark. We would expect in the coming quarters for the accretion to return to around 3 basis points and slowly decrease from there. The September quarter also included approximately $200,000 of interest recovery on a nonaccrual ag relationship. Excluding both the larger fair value accretion and the noted interest recovery, adjusted net interest margin would have been 3.65%, representing modest compression from the linked quarter.

Looking ahead, we could see some near-term pressure on net interest margin following the recent increase in rates, reflecting the liability-sensitive nature of our balance sheet. Based on our current interest rate risk model and assuming a static balance sheet, a 100 basis point parallel increase in rates is estimated to reduce net interest income by about 1% over the next 12 months. Over time, however, we believe the positively sloped yield curve should be supportive of margin as fixed rate loans mature and reprice at current market rates.

Noninterest income was $7.1 million, down $212,000 or 2.9% from the linked quarter. Deposit account charges and other noninterest income increased with other noninterest income benefiting from a $189,000 revenue guarantee payment from a merchant services provider and an $85,000 gain on sale of a membership interest in a tax credit investment. These increases were more than offset by lower wealth management fees, insurance commission, gain on sale of loans, bank card interchange income and BOLI income. BOLI income included a $150,000 mortality benefit in the current quarter compared with a $231,000 mortality benefit in June.

Noninterest expense was $26.6 million, up $1 million or 4% from the linked quarter. The full increase was attributable to 3 categories: compensation and benefits increased $460,000, primarily due to higher salaries and bonus accruals and lower deferred loan origination costs, partially offset by lower employee benefit expense. Other noninterest expense increased $345,000, largely reflecting higher loan collection and payoff fees as well as deposit operation and card fraud costs. Occupancy and equipment expense increased $223,000 primarily due to seasonally higher utilities, security costs and onetime facility setup costs.

Advertising expense also included a onetime $100,000 charitable contribution to the FHLB Member Impact Fund. Lower legal and professional fees and postage office supplies provided the largest offset. The allowance for credit losses increased $3.4 million to $58.3 million or 1.31% of gross loans and 219% of nonperforming loans. Net charge-offs were $494,000 or 4 basis points of average loans on an annualized basis. The increase in the allowance primarily reflected management's assessment of reserve adequacy amid an evolving economic environment and to support loan growth. The current quarter provision included a $3.9 million provision for outstanding loan balances and a $902,000 negative provision for off-balance sheet credit exposures, primarily reflecting a lower required reserve rate on unfunded commitments.

With that, Greg, I'll turn it back to you for some closing comments.

Thanks, Stefan. We are pleased with our strong profitability and solid loan growth during the quarter, which allow us to continue investing in the people and capabilities needed to support our long-term growth. That includes our new Kansas City branch, which opened at the beginning of October and replaced our existing nearby facility which was truly in need of an upgrade. Initial customer feedback has been positive, and we're excited for the new branch to serve as a flagship location for us in the Kansas City market. We also continued supporting our communities through the FHLB Member impact Fund. Our contribution generated an additional $300,000 match, bringing the total distributed to 22 charitable organizations to $400,000.

Turning to capital deployment. M&A conversations have become somewhat more active and our strong capital position gives us the flexibility to pursue the right strategic partner while also returning capital to shareholders through share repurchases. As we evaluate these opportunities, we remain focused on disciplined organic growth, prudent risk management, deepening customer relationships and thoughtful capital deployment.

Stefan?

Thank you, Greg. At this time now, we're ready to take questions. Please remind participants how to enter the queue.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Brendan Nosal from Hovde Group.

Starting off here on kind of the expense base. I guess costs were a little bit heavier than I was expecting for the quarter. Can you just kind of talk about how we should think about the run rate on the core expense base as we move through the balance of the year?

Yes. Thanks for the question. So I guess, bigger picture, things are still progressing through the year as we originally expected. The [ life ] guidance we gave last quarter was sort of the mid-single digits to high single-digit expense growth for the fiscal year. We're still on track for that. And one of the sort of larger contributions to that is going to be the salary and benefits line. There's a little bit of a step-up there. We have sequentially -- we'll see a bigger pickup in -- or I'm sorry, our March quarter with our annual merit increases from there.

But another sort of newer contributor is the loan origination factor. One of the items I mentioned in the comments was a little bit of the increase from expenses was actually derived from lower originations. So we had lower deferred expenses on that front.

Okay. All right. That's helpful. Then maybe pivoting to kind of this quarter's provision expense and reserve coverage. I think you said reserve coverage up 6 basis points to like $1.31. I know last quarter, you were talking about $1.25 to $1.35 coverage range. But maybe just kind of walk through like why specifically you wanted to bring that up this quarter? Is it just kind of reflecting the environment? Or is it perhaps in advance of any potential deterioration that you might see coming down the road?

Nothing specific on potential deterioration. Of course, we do want to always take a more conservative stance with our provisioning and really just the way the numbers showed in the calculation, we had some had some availability to take some additional provision and decided to do that.

We feel comfortable with the $1.31. We feel like that is an attractive place to be.

Your next question comes from the line of Jordan Ghent from Stephens.

I just kind of wanted to talk more about the margin. I know Stefan you kind of talked about it, you guys are expecting some margin compression from here given your liability sensitivity. Could you maybe -- but could you talk more about the fixed asset repricing kind of when you expect that to start coming in?

Yes. So I guess at a high level, we have about $815 million in loans repricing over the next 12 months. That sort of average roll-off rate is just at about 6.5% versus right now, where our average loan renewal on the fixed side is around 7%. So there's some pickup there, which is sort of partially offset by the CD front. We have about $1.4 billion in CDs renewing over the next 12 months at an average rate of 3.82% and that sort of average current renewal and renewed rate, it's about 4.08%.

Got it. And then just kind of going back to the deposit growth. So it looks like past 2 quarters, you guys have seen some good growth in the noninterest-bearing. It looks like it's a little bit bigger than kind of normal seasonal stuff. Can you kind of talk about what's driving that and then kind of where you see that going from here, it will continue to go through the rest of the year? Or should it slow down?

We are emphasizing more carrying balances in noninterest-bearing with our new deposit products. I think we may be a little early to say whether what we're seeing so far is maybe just some noise in the overall number versus true movement on that. It is something that we expect to focus on, on an ongoing basis. But just looking at the averages, we think we've got decent trends there, but the quarter-over-quarter numbers may just have a little noise in them. Anything additionally...

Okay. And then just maybe one more question. Can you talk a little bit more -- Greg, I know you mentioned about the modified C&I loan. Is this kind of like idiosyncratic? Or do you guys -- is there a potential for additional rate concessions on other loans as we move into the higher rate cycle?

No, I would say this is a one-off as far as what we have out there is somebody that we've dealt with for 20 years. Their business is actually expanding, and we're just trying to help facilitate some of the front-end cost of -- on working capital of the expansion they have to their business. But they are a watch-rated credit. So we are watching them. But our interest rate concession was -- they are at prime. So they're not significant.

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Liesch with StoneX Financial.

A question on M&A. I guess, where are you looking? Like where -- if you look at your footprint right now and where prospective deals are taking -- or deal conversations are taking place, where do you think is the most attractive place for you to expand to right now through M&A?

We're really looking at more end market activity, we're interested more in the -- more of the people we're talking with are Missouri oriented instead of outlying that our footprint continues to -- we're targeting Kansas City to St. Louis to Memphis to Little Rock. So it's basically that geographic area we're adjacent there too. So we're having several different conversations. I would say everything is more on the preliminary basis. But several of the companies, they're Missouri based.

Your next question comes from the line of Nicholas Holowko with Raymond James.

So maybe just to start, congrats on the new Kansas City branch. Maybe you could just update us on some of the momentum from the hires you've made there and how that kind of ties into your expectations for growth over the next year or so?

We feel really good about the team that we've assembled up there, continuing to see good presentations out of that group and expect that momentum to continue. We got a really good team focused on both sides of the balance sheet.

Awesome. And then I know you highlighted the new business deposit account that you had talked about -- a little bit about last quarter. It sounds like that's starting to gain some traction. Any expectations for that to kind of continue to ramp up over the near term here or more of a longer-term horizon there? And maybe just how that's performing relative to your initial expectations?

I'd say it's at least meeting our expectations in the early going. There can be a lot of noise with the rollout of that. And of course, our seasonality will probably overwhelm some of that over the next couple of quarters. But we do still feel good about it from a long-term perspective.

Awesome. And maybe just the last question for me. I hear the comments around M&A. Hopefully, something can come to fruition on that front. Maybe just with -- as we think about capital and valuation has come in a little bit, how you're thinking about potential further buybacks at this point and your sensitivity to the earn back at this point in time?

Yes. We're -- with the valuation coming back in a little, that increases the attractiveness of us buying stock back. We did buy shares back at the 1.5 of tangible book value as that value has become more attractive for repurchases, we did expect some modest improvement in repurchase activity.

Your next question comes from the line of Nathan Race from Piper Sandler.

Just thinking maybe a little bigger picture on the margin. If we do get 2 more Fed rate hikes over the next few months, Stefan, just maybe any thoughts on what we can expect in terms of kind of an exit margin coming out of this year? Is it something in kind of the low 3.60s range just given some of the index deposits you have and your other comments around kind of the headwind on time deposits maturing?

Yes. That seems in the range of possibilities. So in the near term, like I said, we'll see some compression just from the rates, but also another factor to consider is on the margin front over the coming 2 quarters, we'll start seeing some compression there just from the buildup in deposits. As Matt mentioned earlier, we'll start getting in some ag paydowns. So that will bring down the loan book a little bit on that portfolio, and that also brings in the deposit side of that. And then in the March quarter, we get a larger pickup from public units. So we'll have a larger balance sheet ramp-up that will compress the margin a little bit from there.

So on top of a little bit of compression just from the rate side, we'll also see some from the mix of the balance sheet. But that exit range is a fair possibility, and we'll see that tick back up in 4Q as we loan up the balance sheet a little bit more and at higher spreads and rates as we're seeing right now.

Okay. Great. And then just within that context, just given some of the seasonality you have in your deposit base and some of the episodic deposit flows you have within the agricultural arena, is there more opportunities to kind of work down kind of wholesale funding just given some of the treasury management and deposit growth items that you guys laid out? It's obviously nice to see some of the borrowings come down by $30 million or so sequentially.

Yes. We definitely expect in the near term to be a little less reliant on wholesale. And then that would be a longer-term objective as well to stay down in the mid-single digits on wholesale reliance.

Yes. Nate, there'll be no real need in the near term for wholesale deposits with core deposits ramping up seasonally. In addition, we're sort of limited on the FHLB side from that side of the wholesale equation until some more maturities as far as what we would prepay. So we're sort of in a little bit of a lull there for maturities. I don't think the next one pops up until the spring.

Okay. Got it. And if I could just ask one more for Greg. I think you hit on it earlier a bit, but just in terms of some of the timing around some of the resolutions with nonperformers, obviously still somewhat elevated relative to where we're used to seeing NPAs at your bank. So I'm just curious if you can kind of speak to when we can expect nonperformance to come down closer to kind of the more historical levels where you used to see it?

Well, I wish my crystal ball was totally clear on that. Workouts do take time. We have several larger relationships that are nonperforming that we're in at various stages of working out. We really don't know how soon those workouts could happen. Some could happen in this quarter. We're just really not certain. It's a fluid process that we're going through, but we do expect nonperforming assets to be meaningful lower by the end of this fiscal year.

Okay. Great. But generally, it sounds like you're pretty comfortable with kind of the carrying values as you're having discussions to resolve these NPAs.

We do at this time.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Chief Financial Officer, Stefan Chkautovich, for closing remarks.

Thank you all for your time, and we look forward to updating you on our financials next quarter. Have a great day, all.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Hello, and thank you for standing by. My name is [ Dennis ], and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Southern Missouri Bancorp Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to the company's CFO, Stefan Chkautovich. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Dennis. Good morning, everyone. This is Stefan Chkautovich, CFO of 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 Wednesday, July 22, 2026, 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 Matt Funke, President and Chief Administrative Officer. Matt will lead off our conversation today with some highlights from our most recent quarter and fiscal year.

Thanks, Stefan, and good morning, everyone. This is Matt Funke. Thanks for joining us. I'll start with a few highlights from our financial results for the June quarter, which marked the final quarter of our fiscal year. Compared to the prior quarter, earnings increased as we recognized a lower provision for income taxes, primarily reflecting a benefit from tax credit investments, along with higher net interest income, lower noninterest expenses and higher noninterest income. These positive drivers were partially offset by an increased provision for credit losses.

In fiscal 2026, we continue to expand our net interest margin while generating solid loan growth and maintaining disciplined control over operating expenses. Those factors drove improved earnings and profitability, resulting in a return on assets of 1.41% for the fiscal year. While problem credits increased modestly during the year, -- our strong pre-provision net revenue more than absorbed the associated elevated costs and still allowed us to deliver strong profitability.

We are pleased with the financial performance we achieved in fiscal '26, and we're optimistic that we'll maintain healthy profitability metrics in fiscal '27. We earned $1.83 diluted in the June quarter, which was an increase of $0.23 or about 14% from the linked March quarter and up $0.44 or about 32% from the June 2025 quarter. For full year fiscal 2026, we earned $6.43 compared to $5.18 in fiscal '25. The 24% increase year-over-year was predominantly driven by stronger net interest income, which stemmed from net interest margin expansion as funding costs declined, coupled with almost 5% average earning asset growth.

Net interest margin for the quarter was 3.67%, remaining unchanged from the third quarter of fiscal '26, the linked quarter, but up from 3.47% reported for the year ago period. Net interest income was up almost 3% quarter-over-quarter and up about 10% year-over-year. Stefan will run through more of the moving parts of the NIM in a bit. Provision for credit loss was $3.2 million during the fourth quarter, a $1.1 million increase from the linked quarter. The increase was primarily driven by higher net charge-offs, higher reserves required for pooled loans, which was driven largely by the bank's annual ACL methodology update and to support loan growth.

Greg will go into a bit more detail on credit, and Stefan will talk about the allowance for credit losses in a bit. On the balance sheet, gross loan balances increased by $69 million during the fourth quarter. Compared to June 30 a year ago, gross loan balances are up $291 million or 7.1%. Growth in the quarter was largely driven by loans collateralized by construction and land development, 1 to 4 family residential real estate, multifamily and ag real estate and production from the planting season as that kicked off.

We experienced strong loan growth in our East region, driven by seasonal ag lending, followed by solid growth in our Northwest region as our newer lenders in the Kansas City market continue to build and expand portfolios. We had another good quarter for loan originations, generating about $335 million, which was seasonally strong, up $85 million from the year ago period. This strong quarter of originations was partially muted by several larger loan payoffs. Our expected pipeline for the next 90 days remains healthy, increasing approximately $4 million from the prior quarter to $182 million.

Looking ahead to fiscal '27, we continue to expect mid-single-digit loan growth, reflecting strong customer demand. However, as we prioritize funding new loan production with core deposit relationships rather than with wholesale funding, we expect loan growth to moderate somewhat from the 7% achieved in fiscal 2026. Deposit balances increased by about $67 million in the fourth quarter or 1.5% and increased by roughly $126 million or about 3% year-over-year. As this is a seasonally slower period for deposits due to seasonal outflows from our public units, and as our agricultural clients deploy funds [indiscernible].

The quarter-over-quarter growth was primarily driven by broker deposits. Year-over-year, broker deposits have increased just under $56 million, moderate, but more than we would like as local deposit rate competition has increased and wholesale sources offered more cost-effective funding. We recently started the rollout of a new business account, a new suite of business accounts, which along with tweaks to our team member incentives could help us increase our balances in lower-cost operating accounts over time. Tangible book value per share was $47.43, having increased by $5.56 or 13% as compared to June 30 a year ago. And during the fourth quarter of fiscal '26, we repurchased 4,000 shares of common stock at an average price of just over $69 per share, representing a total investment of approximately $291,000.

For the full fiscal year, we repurchased 317,000 shares or almost 3% of the average common shares outstanding at the beginning of the fiscal year at an average price of $58.59, utilizing about $19 million in capital. Those shares were repurchased at an average price equal to 124% of our June 30, 2026, tangible book value per share. Lastly, due to our strong capital position, with the earnings release, we also announced a $0.02 or 8% increase in our quarterly dividend, bringing it to $0.27 per share. So I'll now hand it over to Greg for some discussion on credit.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. Speaking to our credit quality, adversely classified loans improved from the prior quarter, declining to $54 million or 1.2% of gross loans, a decrease of just under $2 million or 6 basis points. Nonperforming loans also improved, decreasing $2.5 million to approximately $28 million or 0.63% of gross loans at June 30. Nonperforming assets totaled about $33.5 million, an increase of $1.5 million from the prior quarter, primarily reflecting an increase in other real estate owned. The increase in other real estate owned resulted from the foreclosure of a previously disclosed commercial loan relationship consisting of multiple loans secured by commercial real estate and equipment during the quarter.

The equipment held as collateral was liquidated and the commercial real estate was transferred to other real estate owned. A $1.2 million charge-off was recognized from the transfer, resulting in a remaining carrying value of approximately $3.6 million. The property is currently being actively marketed for sale. Although classified and nonperforming loans declined quarter-over-quarter, we also downgraded a separate agricultural lending relationship to nonaccrual status during the quarter. The relationship consists of multiple agricultural production loans secured by crop insurance claims, restricted cash crops and equipment.

We recognized a $2.6 million charge-off during the quarter, leaving a remaining exposure of $5.9 million, which is supported by additional specific reserves. The borrower has filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and we are actively pursuing available recovery avenues, including enforcement of our collateral rights and continued engagement with the primary guarantor. Loans past due 30 to 89 days were $13.4 million or 30 basis points of gross loans, up $2.9 million from March. This is an increase of 6 basis points compared to the linked quarter and up 15 basis points compared to a year ago. Total delinquent loans were $27.6 million, representing 63 basis points as a percentage of gross loans, and was a $4.4 million decrease from the linked quarter. The decrease was primarily due to the commercial loan previously mentioned being transferred to other real estate in addition to the partial charge-off of the ag relationship discussed previously.

While nonperforming assets and nonaccrual loans remain elevated compared to historical levels, overall, problem assets remain manageable and our earnings are sufficient to cover potential reserves while maintaining above-average profitability. In combination with our underwriting standards and reserve position, we remain confident in our ability to work through existing credits and to manage any broader pressure that could emerge from economic conditions. That said, we are not satisfied with current levels of problem assets and continue to strengthen our credit management practices.

During fiscal '26, we've made changes to our appraisal review process, added talent in that function, working to -- working to increase oversight of our construction lending as well. Also beginning with the upcoming agricultural production renewal cycle, we will modify procedures to allow improved monitoring. We are also encouraged about the progress being made across several problem credits as workout strategies continue to advance. Looking at credit concentrations, our nonowner CRE concentration at the bank level was roughly 288% of Tier 1 capital and allowance at June 30, down by about 5 percentage points compared to March 31.

On a consolidated basis, our CRE ratio was 276%, down about 8 percentage points quarter-over-quarter. Both CRE concentration ratios decreased due to growth in Tier 1 capital outpacing CRE growth. This quarter, ag real estate balances totaled $296 million or 7% of gross loans and ag production and equipment loans were $219 million or 5%. As compared to the prior quarter end, March 31, ag real estate balances were up $17 million and up $51 million compared to June 30 of last year. Agricultural production and equipment loan balances were up $15 million quarter-over-quarter due to normal seasonality associated with the planting season and higher operating costs and up $13 million year-over-year.

Since our last earnings call, the 2026 renewal season has been completed and crop conditions have continued to improve. With planting now complete across all our markets, our projected crop mix for the '26 production year consists of roughly 30% soybeans, 30% corn, 20% cotton, 15% rice and 5% specialty crops. Favorable and timely rainfall have positioned most major crops for above average yield potential. In addition, both current commodity prices and expected yields are running approximately 10% to 15% above our underwriting assumptions, partially offsetting elevated production costs and improved projected farm profitability.

Producers also expect higher USDA price loss coverage and agricultural risk coverage program payments this fall related to the '25 production year, which should also provide additional liquidity for many of our farmers. Given the earlier planting season this year, we could see harvest activity and corresponding operating line paydowns begin somewhat earlier than normal. However, we continue to expect the majority of seasonal paydowns to occur during our December quarter.

Although farm profitability will ultimately depend on harvest yield and commodity prices, the agricultural portfolio continues to perform in line with our expectations, and we remain comfortable with its overall credit quality and related allowance levels. Despite the modest improvements in the outlook, we continue to maintain elevated reserves for our agricultural production portfolio in recognition of the prolonged pressure facing the ag sector. Stefan?

Thanks, Greg. Matt hit some of the key financial items already, but I wanted to share a few details. This quarter's net interest margin of 3.67% was in line with the linked quarter of March. The NIM included about 3 basis points of fair value discount accretion on acquired loan portfolios and premium amortization on assumed deposits, unchanged from a benefit in the linked March quarter of 3 basis points and 5 basis points in the prior year's June quarter. As reported in our earnings release, this quarter's net interest income included a $603,000 reversal of accrued interest income, which weighed on the NIM and average earning asset yield by about 5 basis points.

With this adjustment, our earning asset yield would have been up 3 basis points, while our cost of interest-bearing liabilities decreased 1 basis point quarter-over-quarter. Although we generated 22 basis points of net interest margin expansion during fiscal 2026, primarily driven by lower cost deposits from the declining rate environment, we could see some pressure on our core margin in the coming quarters as short-term rates have recently increased and deposit competition is elevated. Approximately 25% of our total deposits are indexed to the 91-day treasury bill and the increase in short-term rates could pressure funding costs.

To continue strengthening our deposit franchise, we recently launched a new suite of business deposit accounts, better focused on tracking operating accounts and expanding our relationships with commercial customers. In addition, we are further aligning our sales initiatives and incentive structure to place greater emphasis on deposit growth, and we're reinforcing the importance of capturing operating deposits with new loan relationships and renewals. While we expect adoption of these initiatives to build over time, we believe they provide an opportunity to improve our deposit mix, deepen customer relationships and support our long-term funding strategy.

Looking at noninterest income, we saw an increase of 3.8% compared to the linked quarter. The improvement was primarily driven by higher interchange income resulting from increased transaction activity, earnings on bank-owned life insurance, higher levels of gain on sale of SBA loans and growth in wealth management fees. Bank-owned life insurance income was elevated during the quarter due to a $231,000 mortality benefit recognized in the period. These increases were partially offset by lower other noninterest income as the linked March quarter included a $315,000 gain on sale of a membership interest and tax credit investment that did not recur in the June quarter.

For the full fiscal year, we generated $27.8 million of noninterest income, down a little less than 1% from the prior year, primarily due to lower other loan fees following our refinement of fee recognition practices under ASC 310-20, which results in a greater portion of these fees being recognized in interest income over the life of the related loans. Noninterest expense was down 2.6% compared to the linked quarter, primarily attributable to a decrease in other noninterest expense, occupancy and equipment expense and data processing costs.

Other noninterest expense decreased largely due to lower expenses for lending activities, loan collection and management of foreclosed real estate. Occupancy and equipment expense declined due to lower maintenance, equipment, utility lease expense and depreciation costs. Data processing expense was down primarily due to lower third-party and usage-based costs, along with favorable timing of seasonal processing and technology-related expenses. Noninterest expense totaled $102.1 million in both fiscal 2026 and 2025 as we benefited from our refined accounting for loan origination expenses under ASC 310-20, in addition to realizing about a $1.2 million benefit over the year from our medical insurance claims funding.

Looking forward to fiscal 2027, we would expect to see operating expenses reaccelerate as we continue to reinvest in both new team members and new technology as we look to escalate growth in various business segments and further expand our presence in the Kansas City market. The allowance for credit losses at June 30, 2026, totaled $54.9 million, representing 1.25% of gross loans and 199% of nonperforming loans as compared to an ACL of $55.9 million, representing 1.29% of gross loans and 186% of nonperforming loans at March 31, 2026.

$4.3 million of net charge-offs were realized in the quarter, which was a $4 million increase compared to the linked quarter, primarily related to the ag production loan placed on nonaccrual in the quarter and a previously identified nonperforming commercial loan relationship that was transferred to OREO. The $1 million decrease in ACL was primarily driven by net charge-offs, reduced allowances for individually evaluated loans as well as a decline in certain qualitative adjustments relevant to assessing expected credit losses.

This decrease was partially offset by higher modeled losses following our annual methodology update for pooled loans. Due to these drivers, the company recorded a provision for credit loss of $3.2 million compared to $2.1 million in the March quarter.

The last item I'd like to touch on is our effective tax rate, which for the quarter was 11.9% compared to 19.1% in the linked quarter and 17.5% in the same quarter last year. The decline was primarily driven by a $1.7 million tax benefit related to 2 tax credit investments, including a larger transferable tax credit investment. While our effective tax rate can fluctuate based on timing, size and mix of tax credit investments, these transactions have historically been concentrated in our fourth fiscal quarter. We continue to expect a normalized effective tax rate in the 19% to 20% range and do not anticipate tax benefits of this magnitude in fiscal 2027. Greg, any closing thoughts?

Yes, Stefan. We're very proud of our accomplishments in fiscal '26, highlighted by strong earnings growth and achieving a 1.41% return on average assets and 15% return on tangible equity. This year, we have started to see the positive results of our performance improvement initiative launched in fiscal '24, reflecting the dedication and execution of our exceptional team. At the same time, we have continued our legacy of growth by adding commercial lenders in Kansas City and other key markets, adding an insurance producer focused on commercial policies and strengthening our wealth management and trust teams.

We believe these investments position us to further diversify our revenue streams and support sustainable growth and profitability in the years ahead. On the M&A front, discussions have remained active since last quarter. Within our footprint alone, there are approximately 75 banks with $500 million to $2 billion in assets, along with additional institutions in adjacent markets, providing a broad pipeline of potential opportunities. Coupled with our improved trading multiples and strong capital position, we believe we are well positioned to act when the right partner is ready.

In closing, our focus remains on disciplined execution, prudent risk management and thoughtful capital deployment to deliver sustained and attractive returns to our shareholders.

Thanks, Greg. At this time, Dennis, we're ready to take questions from our participants. So if you would, please remind the callers how they may queue for questions at this time.

[Operator Instructions]

And your first question is from the line of Matt Olney with Stephens Inc.

I want to start with the net interest margin, good performance again this quarter. It sounds like there could be some pressure in the near term. I was hoping Stefan can maybe quantify this for us. And then I guess the second part, over the last few years, we've talked about that tailwinds from the fixed loan repricing for the bank. Any more kind of remaining from that?

Yes. Thanks for the question, Matt. So to start on sort of what we're seeing on the NIM front. Right now, there's been an increase in short-term rates. The 91-day from the start of July for us is up about 14 basis points on those indexed deposits. So seeing a little bit of pressure on that front to start the quarter and year. So from that 3.72% sort of core net interest margin, adjusting for that nonaccrual loan, we could see some compression from there. And then on the repricing sort of what we're seeing on that front, we have about $550 million of fixed rate loans maturing -- and on that front, originating loans are about 25 basis points over what's maturing on the loan front.

And then on the CD front, we have about $1.3 billion repricing over the next 12 months. But on that front, we're seeing about new rates on the 3 to 5 basis points above maturing CD rates. So a little give and take, some benefit on the loan front, but seeing some cost pressure on the CD front.

Yes. Okay. Appreciate that, Stefan. And then I guess, switching gears on the credit side, quite a bit of noise this quarter. I think there was a reference to the bank's annual ACL methodology update. As I think about kind of that credit noise that we've had this past quarter, but also a year ago, any more color there? Just trying to appreciate what that would mean for provision expense for 2027.

Yes. We could see some increase in provision expense going forward. We did have our annual model adjustment, which that alone just from looking at our loss drivers will increase expenses on that front. We could probably look at a range of ACL, about 125% to 135% range that's sort of depending on the amount of problem assets. And then on the sort of the ag front, we did increase -- we have been for the last 1.5 years, having additional reserve for ag watch loans. And that's also increased with this methodology update. So for ag production, we're actually reserving about 17% for watch loans. And on the ag real estate front, we're reserving, call it, 4% to 5%.

We do feel pretty good about the direction of where problem asset levels are headed. We are optimistic that there is going to be some improvement over the next several quarters.

Your next question is from the line of Nathan Race with Piper Sandler.

Just going back to the credit discussion. It sounds like there's not much loss content in terms of what migrated to nonperforming within the last year or so and you guys kind of cleaned up that one ag relationship. So just curious as you look out to fiscal year '27, what's maybe a better charge-off range kind of underpinning Stefan's comments around kind of a 125% to 135% reserve going forward?

We would anticipate overall charge-off balances to decline from the rate of the last several years, which I think we were 17 and 18 basis points in the last 2 fiscal years. We're targeting that to improve from where we had been. Roughly, we're hoping that we'll be moving halfway back to historical levels. Historically, we've been in that 3 to 5 basis points a year range.

Okay. Got it. That's helpful. And Stefan, just to confirm, I heard you on kind of the margin factors going forward. It sounds like maybe a little bit of pressure from the kind of 3.71% adjusted margin ex the reversals in this quarter and then it's kind of maybe a stable outlook thereafter, just given some of the factors on both loans and deposits that you described?

Yes. The next quarter, just alone likely see some pressure and then sort of on the outlook just from the fixed rate loan repricing, we could see a small net benefit, maybe a basis point or so just on that front if you sort of do the math there, but it isn't a whole lot of incremental benefit as we have over 2x the amount of CDs renewing in that period versus loans.

We do still have the occasional payoff of a larger credit, which kind of surprises you with a handle that is a little higher than -- a little lower than the current market. So there's some onetime benefits here and there on just unscheduled repayment.

Okay. Got it. And then you guys alluded to in your comments around some of the hires you've made on the fee income front. Just curious what you think some of those hires and some of the other initiatives you guys are undertaking in terms of how that can translate to kind of year-over-year fee income growth in '27 relative to, call it, adjusted $27.5 million in the fiscal year '26.

I didn't catch the $27.5 million.

Yes, $27.5 million revenue -- revenue in fiscal '24.

Yes. It's probably something with a little bit longer lead time than we'd feel comfortable guiding to. There's always going to be some time for them to get their feet under them. We're not necessarily counting on anything significant, certainly in the first half of our fiscal year. And then hopefully, by the end of the fiscal year, you start to see some impact, but it's a multiyear earn-out on that type of investment probably.

Okay. Got it. And then just lastly, Stefan, any perspectives or kind of guidance around of the expense growth rate that we can expect in '27? I imagine it's probably more consistent with kind of the 3% range we're historically accustomed with.

Yes. So a bigger picture with some of these investments. And last year was a little bit of an anomaly with flat expenses due to some of the changes we've had with deferral accounting as well as the $1.2 million benefit we had with our health medical costs. So bigger picture, depending on the timing of the investments, we could see somewhere mid-single digits to maybe the low end of high single digits year-over-year growth on that operating expenses with most of that being on the compensation and benefits front.

Okay. Got it. And I apologize if I could sneak one more in. Greg, it sounds like you're a little bit more optimistic on the acquisition front these days. So just want to confirm some of that optimism. And is it fair to assume buybacks are probably less likely going forward just given the stock price these days?

Where we're trading at on a price to tangible book value, we feel like M&A offers a much quicker return or earn-back period, plus with the improved multiples that we're trading at now, we have a little better currency that makes M&A a little more attractive between buyer and seller expectations. We would really like to have that right partner that would provide a little liquidity to us.

At this time, there are no further questions. I will now turn the call over to Matt for closing remarks.

Okay. Thank you, Dennis, and thank you, everyone, for joining us. We appreciate your interest in Southern Missouri, and we'll speak again in about 3 months. Have a good day.

This concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect, and have a great day.

Hello, and thank you for standing by. My name is Bella, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Southern Missouri Bancorp Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Stefan Chkautovich, Chief Financial Officer. You may begin.

Thank you, Bella. 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 Wednesday, April 22, 2026, 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 Matt Funke, President and Chief Administrative Officer. Matt will lead off our conversation today with some highlights from our most recent quarter and fiscal year.

Thank you, Stefan. Good morning, everyone. This is Matt Funke. Thanks for joining us. I'll start off with some highlights on our financial results for the March quarter, the third quarter of our fiscal year. Quarter-over-quarter, our earnings and profitability were down a bit from an increase in operating expenses and a modest uptick in provision for credit losses primarily driven by loan growth and higher reserve for pooled loans. This was partially offset by a lower provision for income taxes, better noninterest income and slightly higher levels of net interest income.

Although earnings and profitability were down slightly, the March quarter is typically our weakest quarter from a profitability perspective, and we actually had less impact from the seasonality than we typically see due to lower average cash balances as we decreased our brokered funding compared to the year ago quarter and because we experienced stronger loan growth.

With maintaining an ROA above 1.40% the last 2 quarters, we feel good about what we've been able to achieve in earnings and profitability this fiscal year, and we're optimistic about continuing this trend into the final quarter. We earned $1.60 diluted in the March quarter. That's down $0.02 from the linked December quarter, but it's up $0.21 from the March 2025 quarter.

Net interest margin for the quarter was 3.67% as compared to 3.44% reported for the year ago period and up from 3.57% reported for the second quarter of fiscal '26. Net interest income was up just under 1% quarter-over-quarter and up just over 9% year-over-year due to the increase in average earning asset balances and net interest margin expansion. Stefan will run through more of the moving parts of the NIM in a bit.

On the balance sheet, gross loan balances increased by $96 million during the third quarter and compared to March 31 of the prior year, gross loan balances are up just under $300 million or 7.4%. Growth in the quarter was primarily in our loans collateralized by real estate with all segments up with the exception of construction and land development loans as we had a larger project move to a term financing facility. In addition, we also saw some growth in C&I and ag production loans as borrowers began the planting season later in the quarter.

We experienced strong growth in our South region, followed by good growth in our North region. We had another good quarter for loan originations, generating about $282 million, which was seasonally strong, up $94 million from the same quarter a year ago.

As we enter the fourth quarter, which has historically been a stronger quarter for loan originations, our expected loan pipeline for the next 90 days has increased to $178 million, up from $159 million expected at December 31. Due to some anticipated larger loan payoffs in the fourth quarter, we could see a bit more muted loan growth, but with achieving 5.4% loan growth in the fiscal year-to-date thus far, we're in a good position to reach the higher end of our anticipated mid-single-digit loan growth range for fiscal '26.

Deposit balances increased by about $33 million in the third quarter and increased by $80 million or about 2% year-over-year. As we've been less competitive this year on local deposit rate specials, the quarter-over-quarter growth was primarily driven by broker deposits. Year-over-year, brokered deposits had declined just over $9 million, but they increased $36 million compared to the linked quarter end as local deposit rate competition was stiff and wholesale sources offered much more cost-effective funding.

We plan to launch a new business account in the coming quarter, which, if successful over time, along with tweaks to our team member incentives could help increase our balances and lower cost operating accounts at the bank. Tangible book value per share was $45.80 at March 31 and has increased by $5.43 or 13.5% over the last 12 months. Finally, in the second quarter -- in the third quarter, excuse me, we repurchased 156,000 shares at an average price of $61.97 per share for a total of $9.7 million. The average purchase price was 135% of our tangible book value as of March 31.

I'll now hand it over to Greg for some additional discussion.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. Starting with credit quality, adversely classified loans improved some since last quarter, totaling $56 million or 1.3% of gross loans, down $3 million or 11 basis points as a percent of gross loans since last quarter. Nonperforming loans were around $30 million at March 31 and totaled 0.7% of gross loans, an increase of $480,000 compared to the prior quarter. Nonperforming assets were around $32 million and increased $757,000 quarter-over-quarter with bill material nonperforming loans or other real estate being added this quarter.

Loans past due 30 to 89 days were $10.5 million, down $1.3 million from December and totaled 24 basis points of gross loans. This is a decrease of 4 basis points compared to the linked quarter and down 13 basis points compared to a year ago. Total delinquent loans were $32 million, which was essentially flat from December and represented 74 basis points as a percentage of total loans. While nonperforming assets, nonaccrual loans remain elevated compared to our historical levels, overall problem asset levels remain manageable, and our earnings are sufficient to cover potential reserves while maintaining above-average profitability.

In combination with our underwriting standards and reserve position, we remain comfortable with our ability to run through existing credits and to manage any broader pressures that could emerge from economic conditions. That said, we're not complacent with current levels of problem assets. We remain focused on improving credit quality, and we feel good about progress being made across several problem credits as workout strategies continue to move forward.

Turning to ag. This quarter, ag real estate balances totaled $279 million or 6% of gross loans and ag production and equipment loans were $204 million or 5% of gross loans. As compared to the prior quarter end December 31, ag real estate balances were up $17 million and up $32 million compared to [indiscernible] a year ago. Agricultural production and equipment loan balances were up $2 million quarter-over-quarter and up $18 million year-over-year with expectations for these balances to increase in the coming quarter as planting season ramps up.

Farmer liquidity improved with meaningful line pay downs, but many producers deferred sales in 2026 due to weak commodity prices last fall and utilized Commodity Credit Corporation stored grain loans to generate liquidity. A significant portion of 2025 rice and cotton production remains unsold, while most corn and soybean stores have been liquidated.

Depressed prices and some yield pressure in '25 resulted in borrower shortfalls in our portfolio, driving restructurings which contributed to growth in our ag real estate balance as mentioned before, as we used our strong borrowers' equity position to satisfy operating shortfalls. Despite elevated carryover debt levels and tighter repayment capacity, our impacted borrowers were successfully repositioned to continue operations this year.

Looking ahead, the '26 crop year is shaping up to be another high cost environment, though commodity prices have improved modestly relative to our conservative underwriting assumptions. Producers are actively managing input costs and shifting acreage towards lower-cost crops, particularly soybeans. Our lenders have maintained disciplined underwriting through stress testing both cash flows and collateral values.

Early planning progress has been favorable. While we're optimistic that government support and stronger market prices will provide some relief, '26 is expected to be another challenging year, largely dependent on commodity prices. Despite these challenges, we expect to see satisfactory performance of our customers. In addition, due to prolonged weakness in the agricultural segment, we have taken the prolonged pressure in ag into consideration in our calculation of our allowance for credit losses to reserve more for our agricultural exposure. Stefan?

Thanks, Greg. Matt hit some of the key financial items already, but I wanted to share a few details. This quarter's net interest margin of 3.67% was up 10 basis points compared to the linked December quarter. The NIM included about 3 basis points of fair value discount accretion on acquired loan portfolios and premium amortization on assumed deposits compared to 5 in the linked December quarter and down from the prior March year's March quarter addition of 13 basis points as we had a larger marked loan prepay in that quarter.

The linked quarter improvement in the NIM was primarily driven by a 9 basis point improvement in our cost of funds to 2.52%, benefiting from the December 2025 25 basis point rate cut and a small benefit from a 1 basis point increase in average earning asset yields, but loan yields were flat quarter-over-quarter at 6.26%. As mentioned last quarter, our loan portfolio has largely repriced up to where we are seeing current market rate originations.

Over the next 12 months, we have $646 million of fixed rate loans repricing with an average rate of 6.33% compared to new and renewed loans coming on around 6.50%. But most of these loans with lower rates are maturing in fiscal 2027 or starting in July. Our fourth quarter 2026 average rate for maturing fixed rate loans is 7%. So we could see some pressure next quarter on our loan yields.

On the CD front, we have about $1.1 billion maturing over the next 12 months with an average rate of 3.84% with new origination rates in the 3.80s and renewals moderately lower. With these dynamics, we do not expect to see material near-term expansion of the NIM as we saw this last quarter without further rate cuts by the FOMC.

Noninterest income was up $314,000 or 4.6% compared to the linked quarter, primarily due to higher other noninterest income from the gain on sale of membership interest of the tax credit investment and increased earnings on bank-owned life insurance from a mortality benefit realized in the quarter.

On a year-over-year basis, fee income was up $424,000 or 6.4%, which in addition to the benefit from the sale on the tax credit investment and BOLI, the bank had elevated levels of fee income from deposit account charges and related fees as well as bank card interchange income, which was partially offset by lower other loan fees, reflecting a refinement of our fee recognition under ASC 310-20, with a greater portion now recognized in interest income over the life of the loan. The increase in deposit account charges was primarily a result of higher nonsufficient fund income from increased overdrafts in addition to growth in wire volume from the addition of several cash management clients.

Noninterest expense was up 3.8% quarter-over-quarter, primarily due to higher compensation and benefits expenses, other noninterest expense and occupancy and equipment expenses. The increase in compensation and benefits expense was primarily due to annual merit increases, which took effect in January. Other noninterest expense increased largely due to expenses for lending activities, loan collection and management of foreclosed real estate. Lastly, occupancy and equipment expense growth was primarily driven by elevated maintenance and repair costs, remodel projects and equipment purchases.

The allowance for credit loss at March 31, 2026, totaled $55.9 million, representing 1.29% of gross loans and 186% of nonperforming loans as compared to an ACL of $54.5 million, representing 1.29% of gross loans and 184% of NPLs at December 31, 2025. The increase in the ACL was primarily attributable to higher reserves required for pooled loans, driven largely by increased reserves on agricultural loans, reflecting ongoing pressure in the ag sector and loan growth.

As a percentage of average loans outstanding, the company recorded net charge-offs of 4 basis points annualized as compared to net recoveries of 7 basis points during the linked quarter. The net recoveries in the December quarter were primarily driven by the workout of the specialty CRE relationship that we've discussed in prior quarters.

Our provision for credit losses was $2.1 million in the quarter, which was a $400,000 increase compared to the linked quarter. The current period PCL was the result of a $1.8 million provision attributable to the ACL for loan balances outstanding and $234,000 provision attributable to the allowance for off-balance sheet credit exposure to support an increase in unfunded loan commitments.

Our nonowner-occupied CRE concentration at the bank level was approximately 291% of Tier 1 capital and allowance for credit losses at March 31, 2026, up by about 2 percentage points as compared to December 31. On a consolidated basis, our CRE ratio was 283%, up 1 percentage point quarter-over-quarter. Both CRE concentration ratios increased due to growth of nonowner-occupied CRE and multifamily loans, which was partially offset by a decrease in construction and land development loans, which outpaced growth in our Tier 1 capital.

The last item I wanted to touch on is our effective tax rate. Our effective tax rate for the quarter was 19.1% compared to the linked quarter of 20% and the same period last year of 20.9%. This fiscal year, we have benefited from lower state tax rates and revised apportionment methodology as well as ongoing benefits from the recognition of tax credits under the proportional amortization method in accordance with ASC 2023-02. Structurally, this has led to a slightly lower tax rate year-over-year. But this quarter, we also had a catch-up in recognition of tax expense interest income. With that, we see our run rate effective tax rate to be in the range of 19.5% to 20%.

Overall, we're encouraged by the meaningful improvement in earnings and profitability year-to-date, particularly over the past 2 quarters as provision for credit losses has returned to more normalized levels. We remain optimistic that these positive trends will continue through the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 and extend into fiscal 2027.

Greg, any closing thoughts?

Thanks, Stefan. With our return on assets exceeding 1.4% over the past 2 quarters, we continue to build capital, enhancing our flexibility to return capital to shareholders, reduce higher cost debt and fund future growth opportunities. This quarter, we repurchased shares at attractive levels while maintaining excess capital to deploy into accretive opportunities, and we have the capacity to retire $7.5 million of subordinated debt as it becomes callable in May.

On M&A, discussions have remained active since last quarter. Within our footprint alone, there's approximately 75 banks with $500 million to $2 billion in assets, along with additional institutions in adjacent markets, providing a broad pipeline of potential opportunities. Coupled with our improved trading multiples and strong capital position, we believe we are well positioned to act when the right partner and deal structure emerges.

In closing, we're pleased with the quarter and confident in our trajectory. Our focus remains on disciplined execution, prudent risk management and thoughtful capital deployment to deliver sustained attractive returns to our shareholders.

Thanks, Greg. Bella, at this time, would you remind callers how they can queue for questions, and we'll be ready to take those.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Charlie Driscoll with KBW.

This is Charlie on for Kelly Motta. Given the loan-to-deposit ratio around 100% coming out of the quarter, I know it's a seasonally strong quarter for loan growth. Is the expectation that deposit gathering can largely keep up with your pace -- with your loan growth outlook? Just curious maybe to get your thoughts on the opportunities to increase on the right side of the balance sheet from a deposit gathering perspective.

Well, Charlie, we normally see March as our slower quarter for the lending side and a little bit stronger quarter on the deposit side that flipped back a little bit this year. Deposit growth is going to be a governing factor in how fast we can grow loans. We can grow deposits quickly. The question is growing them at a low cost. So that is our challenge as an organization and something we are focused very much on. We still feel confident we can achieve that mid-single digit for the foreseeable future on both sides of the balance sheet.

Great. And then just on capital allocation, is there any additional appetite on the buyback over the near term? Or do you view kind of this quarter's activity as a good run rate or kind of taking advantage of market volatility?

Yes, it's probably a little higher than what we would like to see quarter-over-quarter or on a consistent quarterly basis, I guess, is what I should say. The market volatility definitely played a role if prices would improve from here, we'd expect activity to be a little bit more muted.

Generally, we anticipate a 3- to 3.5-year earnback on repurchase shares. And the price determinant will determine how active we would be in stock repurchases.

Your next question comes from the line of Nathan Race with Piper Sandler.

I wondering if you could just -- maybe Greg or Matt, just expand a little bit on kind of what's driving the strength in the pipeline. It looks like your loans slated to close are up about 12% versus last quarter. So I'm just curious if this has largely come from share gains or if you guys are adding some producers or just kind of just generally what you're seeing in terms of the pipeline strength recently?

I think we've just had -- we added several people 6 months ago, and we're seeing some of them hit their strides now getting through periods of when they were getting acclimated, getting deals flows. So some of it is for people that have been on staff 3 to 6 months. And we're just having an increased number of looks out there from what we did have. But we really haven't changed really much of any of our underwriting guidelines or structure. We're just having more deals come to fruition and our people are performing well. So we're happy with our loan production volume and generally happy with the pricing of it.

Okay. That's great. And then one maybe for Stefan on the fee income outlook. If we take out the tax credit gains with another, something closer to $6.9 million or $7 million a better run rate for the June quarter? And just generally, any kind of fee income initiatives you want to highlight as you look out to maybe growth aspirations in fiscal year '27?

Yes. So the tax credit gain was about $305,000, and we had the full gain of about $130,000. So that wouldn't be expected to be in our sort of core run rate going forward and nothing near term on the fee income side, but that is an area of focus for us sort of going forward on wealth management, insurance and some other aspects that we're working on in the background.

Okay. Got it. And then maybe one last one for you as well, Stefan, just on kind of the margin trajectory from here. I'm not sure how you guys are thinking about maybe the magnitude of additional expansion with the Fed on pause, obviously, I think additional Fed cuts would help from a funding cost perspective and just given that you have kind of less repricing on the left side of the balance sheet, but just kind of any thoughts on just kind of how the margin can trend over the next few quarters?

Yes. So this coming quarter, our fourth quarter, I would expect sort of limited NIM expansion. As I stated on the call earlier on some remarks, we have some higher rate -- fixed rate loans that are maturing and our average sort of repricing is a little bit lower by about 50 basis points or so. So that could be a little bit of pressure. But to start our new fiscal year, we see some benefits on that side picking up. And on the sort of deposit pricing side, I don't really see anything in the near term for a large incremental benefit without further rate cuts.

Okay. Perfect. Maybe just one last one actually for Greg. Any thoughts on just maybe the timing and kind of magnitude of some resolutions of nonperformers? Obviously, you guys are still running at higher levels relative to your historical track record. So just curious if you have any visibility in terms of when we could start to see some of these nonperformers cure.

We're really pretty optimistic that we'll start trending lower this quarter. This quarter and the following quarter, we would expect to see some improvement in NPA numbers. Some of it may result in being other real estate, really several deals are reaching conclusion this quarter. And we feel good about where we're at on most of it.

Okay. So it sounds like based on existing reserves and marks, you're not really expecting a material rise in charge-offs as some of these loans cure.

There could be some charge-offs related to one, but I don't anticipate it to have any impact on ACL or on our provision.

On our provisioning.

Your last question comes from the line of Jordan Ghent with Stephens Inc.

Most of them have been answered, but I just had one on the expenses. Kind of what's a good run rate kind of going forward? I think you talked about higher occupancy expenses in this last quarter. So if we take those out, would that be kind of a good run rate over the next few quarters?

We think this quarter's run rate will be good to use for going forward. There wasn't a whole lot of onetime events in there on the expense side.

That concludes our Q&A session. I will now turn the call back over to Matt Funke, President, for closing remarks.

Well, thank you, Bella, and thank you, everyone, for joining us. We appreciate your interest in the company, and we look forward to visiting again here in 3 months. Have a good day.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Southern Missouri Bancorp Earnings Call. My name is James, and I will be your operator for today. [Operator Instructions] The conference call will now start, and I'll hand it over to our host, Chief Financial Officer of Southern Missouri Bancorp. Stefan, please go ahead.

Thank you, James. 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 Wednesday, January 21, 2026, 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 Matt Funke, President and Chief Administrative Officer. Matt will lead off our conversation today with some highlights from our most recent quarter.

Thank you, 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, the second quarter of our fiscal year. Quarter-over-quarter, our earnings and profitability improved due to a lower provision for credit losses, a larger earning asset base, which drove an increase in net interest income as well as an increase in noninterest income.

With the earnings and profitability improvement we've seen in the first half of our fiscal year, we feel we have good momentum and see positive trends continuing into the second half. We earned $1.62 per share diluted in the December quarter. That's up $0.24 or 17.4% from the linked September quarter and up $0.32 or 24.6% from the December 2024 quarter.

Provision for credit loss expense was about $1.7 million, a decrease of $2.8 million when compared to the linked September quarter. As we stated on the last earnings call, we expected the provision to decrease this quarter as we had some positive movement with the workout of the specialty CRE loans we've discussed in prior quarters. Greg will give some more details on that next.

On the balance sheet, gross loan balances increased by $35 million during the second quarter. Compared to December 31 of the prior year, our gross loan balances are up almost $200 million or 5%.

Growth in the quarter was led by 1-4 family residential, C&I and construction and loan development loans. We experienced strong growth in our East region, followed by good growth in our West region. We had a great quarter for loan originations generating almost $312 million, our strongest quarter over the last several years, but growth was slowed by seasonal ag paydowns and some larger loan payoffs.

With the strong production and as we enter a slower season for ag and real estate lending, our loan pipeline for the next 90 days decreased somewhat but remains healthy at $159 million at December 31.

Due to normal seasonality, we would expect limited net loan growth in the March quarter, but having grown just above 3% in our fiscal year-to-date and expecting a typical pickup of growth in our fourth quarter, we're still in a good position to achieve mid-single-digit growth for the fiscal year of '26.

Deposit balances increased by about $28 million in the second quarter and by $98 million or 2.3% compared to December 31 of the prior year. Over the last 12 months, we've had a reduction of $72 million in brokered deposits. So we put our core deposit growth at about $170 million or 4.3% over that 12-month period.

Net interest margin for the quarter was 3.57%, unchanged from the linked September quarter and as compared to 3.34% reported for the year ago period. Net interest income was up just over 1% quarter-over-quarter and up 12.4% year-over-year.

Stefan will get into the details on the NIM in a bit, but I wanted to point out that with 50 basis points of FOMC cuts in the December quarter, we have seen some positive underlying improvement in the NIM, although that was hampered this quarter by 2 credit relationships that were placed on nonaccrual.

Adjusting for $678,000 of this reversed interest income related to these credits, the NIM would have been 3.63% in the December quarter. Tangible book value per share was $44.65 an increased by $5.74 or almost 15% during the last 12 months. Lastly, in the second quarter, we repurchased 148,000 shares at an average price of $54.32 per share for a total of $8.1 million.

The average purchase price was 122% of our tangible book value as of December 31, '25. I'll now hand it over to Greg for some discussion on credit.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. Starting with credit quality. Overall problem asset levels have increased slightly since last quarter but remain at modest levels with adversely classified loans totaling $59 million or 1.4% of gross loans, up $4 million or 8 basis points as a percentage of gross loans since last quarter.

Non-performing loans were about $30 million at 12/31 and totaled 0.7% of gross loans, an increase of $3.6 million compared to last quarter. Non-performing assets were about $31 million and increased $4 million quarter-over-quarter, with most of the increase due to the increase in NPLs.

Both the increase in classified and nonaccrual loans were primarily attributed to 2 borrowing relationships, one consisting of multiple loans collateralized by commercial real estate and equipment and separately, 2 related agricultural production loans secured by crops and equipment, all of which were placed on nonaccrual status during the second quarter and accounted for the $678,000 interest reversal Matt noted earlier.

The CRE and equipment loan relationship totals $5.8 million. The borrower operates a seasonal business, and we expect increased cash flows during the spring and summer operating periods and we are also working with the borrower to add additional collateral support.

The total relationship currently has a 23% specific reserve. The ag-related relationship totals $2.2 million, and we're working through formal resolution processes with the assistance of counsel with the goal of achieving repayment, no refinancing and limited potential losses.

Despite the modest increase in nonperforming assets this quarter, we continue to see positive progress in our specialty CRE relationship that we've discussed the last several quarters. During the second quarter, we received a $2 million recovery on this overall relationship, which contributed to an overall net recovery for the quarter of $704,000.

One of the properties has a new tenant in place with a strong 1-year letter of credit guaranteeing rental payments and the related loan has returned to accrual status and is no longer classified.

The other loan is in the foreclosure process and was materially charged down during the prior quarter, so we do not expect any significant additional impact from that relationship. The combined carrying value of the 2 loans is $2.7 million. Loans past due 30 to 89 days were $12 million, down $692,000 from September and 28 basis points on gross loans, a decrease of 2 basis points compared to the linked quarter.

Total delinquent loans were $32 million, up $2.7 million from the September quarter. The increase in total delinquent loans was mostly due to the CRE and equipment loan relationship discussed earlier. While nonperforming assets and nonaccrual loans were up modestly this quarter, overall problem assets remain at manageable levels and our earnings are sufficient to cover potential reserves while maintaining above-average profitability.

Importantly, we made meaningful progress on the specialty CRE relationship we have discussed in prior quarters, meaningfully reducing our exposure and the resulting net recovery for the quarter. In combination with our underwriting standards and reserve position, we remain comfortable with our ability to work through existing credits and manage any broader pressures that could emerge from economic conditions. That said, we are not complacent with recent trends and remain focused on improving credit quality, and we feel good about progress being made across several problem credits as workout strategies continue to move forward.

As compared to the prior quarter end September 30, ag real estate balances were up about $6 million, and they were up $21 million compared to December 31 a year ago. Ag production and equipment loan balances were down $26 million during the quarter following our normal seasonal pattern, but are up close to $15 million year-over-year.

Our agricultural customers have completed harvest, and we are now in the process of underwriting their '26 operating lines. While weather conditions and heat stress affected yields in certain areas of crops, most producers reported average to above average production across the majority of our acres.

Corn and soybean yields were generally solid, while rice and cotton experienced more variability and in some cases, lower yield and quality. Overall, our crop mix remains diversified, led by soybeans and corn with smaller concentrations in cotton, rice and specialty crops.

Looking ahead in '26, we expect some acreage to shift away from higher cost crops such as cotton and rice more towards corn and soybeans, given current future prices and input cost dynamics. From a financial standpoint, lower commodity prices and elevated production costs are expected to result in operating shortfalls for a portion of our farm customers from the '25 crop year, with projected shortfalls concentrated among a relatively small number of larger producers.

Most borrowers continue to have meaningful equity in land and equipment, and we are utilizing a combination of restructurings, government guarantee programs and conservative underwriting assumptions as we move into our renewal season.

Our '26 cash flow projections using pricing that is generally consistent with current futures and FSA assumptions and includes stress testing of borrower cash flow to assess downside risk. Based on our stringent underwriting, including stress commodity pricing and assumed higher operating costs, we anticipate that our borrowers will generally be able to navigate another challenging year and expect satisfactory performance of these credits over the near term.

Also this quarter, our ag borrowers will generally be eligible for new Farmer bridge assistance program and later in '26, our borrowers should benefit from higher payments under the ag risk coverage, our price loss coverage programs based on changes to those programs adopted in the One Beautiful Bill in '25.

All that said, reflecting our continued prudence given the prolonged weakness in the agricultural segment, we began increasing reserves for watch list agricultural borrowers in the March '25 quarter as part of our ACL calculation.

Stefan, would you update us on our financial performance?

Thanks, Greg. Matt hit some of the key financial items already, but I'll note a few additional details. This quarter's net interest margin of 3.57% was flat compared to the linked September quarter. The NIM included about 5 basis points of fair value discount accretion on acquired loan portfolios and premium amortization on assumed deposits compared to 7 in the linked September quarter and down from the prior year's December quarter addition of 9 basis points.

As Matt mentioned earlier, excluding the interest income reversed from the 2 nonaccrual loans, we see the December quarter's run rate net interest margin at 3.63%, which is a 6 basis point increase quarter-over-quarter. This was primarily due to a 16 basis point decrease in the cost of funds as we benefited from our indexed non maturity deposit accounts repricing down through the quarter.

These index deposits account for about 27% of total deposits at December 31. Looking ahead to the March quarter, declining interest rates are beginning to pressure loan yields as loans mature with approximately $619 million of fixed rate loans maturing over the next 12 months at rates closer to current origination levels of around $650 million.

That said, we continue to see an opportunity for further improvement in funding costs as roughly $1.2 billion of CDs will mature over that same period with an average rate near 4% compared to current originations at approximately 3.6%, which should help support overall spreads.

In addition, we are carrying lower levels of excess liquidity, which is somewhat atypical for this time of year when public unit balances and agricultural deposits are usually at seasonal highs.

Those inflows have been partially offset by reductions in broker deposits, reflecting our continued focus on optimizing our funding mix rather than building liquidity through higher cost wholesale sources.

Year-to-date, broker deposits have declined $53 million, of which $38 million was reduced this quarter.

Non-interest income was up 3.1% compared to the linked quarter due to higher wealth management fees as we have benefited from market appreciation of AUM and net new inflows, increased interchange income as the bank benefited from lower issuer expenses, which are netted in this line and deposit account charges, primarily from increased income from non sufficient fund charges and check order fees.

Non-interest expense was up less than 1% quarter-over-quarter, primarily due to higher compensation expense, other noninterest expense and data processing expenses. Compensation expense was up in the quarter, primarily due to less deferred loan origination expense and a seasonal increase in paid time off realized.

Other noninterest expense increased quarter-over-quarter, primarily due to increased employee travel and training as well as other smaller costs and higher data processing expenses from an increase in transaction volumes and software licensing costs. This was partially offset by a decrease in legal and professional expenses, which were elevated in the September quarter due to $572,000 associated with the use of a consultant to assist in renegotiating a significant contract with a card processor.

Looking forward, we would expect to see a quarterly increase in the compensation expense run rate in the March quarter as annual merit increases and cost of living adjustments take effect for which we awarded a mid-single-digit percentage increase, including the cost of benefits.

The allowance for credit losses at December 31, 2025, totaled $54.5 million, representing 1.29% of gross loans and 184% of non-performing loans as compared to an ACL of $52.1 million, representing 1.24% of gross loans and 200% of NPLs at September 30, 2025.

The increase in the ACL was primarily attributable to additions to individually reviewed loans and net recoveries, which was partially offset by a small decrease in required reserve for pooled loans. As a percentage of average loans outstanding, the company recorded net recoveries of 7 basis points annualized during the current quarter as compared to net charge-offs of 36 basis points during the linked quarter.

As Greg mentioned previously, the current quarter's net recoveries and the linked September quarter's net charge-offs were primarily impacted by the specialty CRE relationship we have discussed over the last couple of quarters and accounts for the $2.8 million decrease in provision for credit loss quarter-over-quarter.

Our nonowner-occupied CRE concentration at the bank level was approximately 289% of Tier 1 capital and allowance at December 31, 2025, down by about 6 percentage points as compared to September 30 due to growth in Tier 1 capital and ACL outpacing owner-occupied CRE growth.

On a consolidated basis, our CRE ratio was 282% at December 31. To conclude, we remain focused on resolving problem loans and further reducing nonperforming assets. This quarter's results with a more normalized provision for credit losses better reflects the company's underlying earnings power, generating a return on assets of just over 1.4%.

We are pleased with the strength and quality of this performance. And absent any unexpected deterioration in credit, we believe the operating trends we are seeing today support continued solid profitability as we move into the second half of the year.

Greg, any closing thoughts?

Thanks, Stefan. I would echo those comments and say we are very pleased with the level and quality of our earnings this quarter. The results we delivered reflect the strength of our franchise, the consistency of our operating performance and the discipline of our teams bring to both growth and risk management.

While we remain vigilant on credit, we believe our current profitability levels are sustainable, and we are encouraged by the trajectory of the business as we move forward. Importantly, this level of performance continues to build capital, which gives us flexibility to return capital to shareholders while also preserving capacity to fund future growth.

Over the last quarter, that allowed us to repurchase shares at attractive levels while still maintaining excess capital to deploy accretively through acquisitions as opportunities arise. With the near completion of our prior share repurchase authorization, our Board approved a new program to repurchase up to 550,000 shares or approximately 5% of shares outstanding.

As with past programs, we intend to remain disciplined and opportunistic, deploying capital when our stock meets our internal investment and return thresholds. In addition, since last quarter, we have continued M&A discussions as market conditions have stabilized and general M&A activity has picked up in the industry.

We remain optimistic about the potential for attractive opportunities and with our strong capital position and proven financial performance, we believe we are well positioned to act when the right partner is ready.

Notably, there are about 75 banks headquartered in our footprint with assets between $500 million and $2 billion, along with a meaningful number of additional institutions in adjacent markets, which provides a broad and active landscape for potential partnerships.

In closing, we are proud of this quarter's performance and confident in the long-term fundamentals of our company. Our focus remains focused on disciplined execution, prudent risk management and thoughtful capital deployment, all with the objective of continuing to deliver consistent attractive returns for our shareholders.

Thanks, Greg. At this time, James, we're ready to take questions from our participants. So if you would, please remind the callers queue for questions.

[Operator Instructions] And we will now have our first question from Matt Olney from Stephens.

I wanted to start off on loan growth. A 2-part question. I heard Matt mention that the loan paydowns this past quarter were higher and part of it was the ag paydowns that were expected. But I also heard Matt mention additional paydowns beyond the ag. So just trying to appreciate if that was a surprise or if that was expected, the other paydowns.

And then part 2, I would just love to appreciate any general commentary on loan pricing competition in your marketplace.

In regard to paydowns, we had several unexpected paydowns that we were not really fully anticipating, but we weren't disappointed to see several of those. One of them was a larger C&I relationship that really had outgrown us that contributed and they moved to a larger bank for their operating lines.

But overall, loan prepayment rates have been higher than what we've historically seen. And we should -- basically, we anticipate prepayment rates to be a little higher than historically.

But we wouldn't say that what we've had in this quarter that was a little unexpected was rate driven necessarily. It was just kind of a mixed bag.

Yes.

And Matt, as far as competition, treasuries have been bouncing quite a bit here lately. We were seeing some talk in the low 6s, high 5s, expect that to kind of move back a little bit higher for your top flight credit quality. But definitely, there still is some aggressive competition out there.

We do still feel good about our mid-single-digit loan growth projections for our fiscal year.

Okay. That's great. I appreciate the color there. And then as far as the outlook on the net interest margin, I think I heard Stefan say that, that 3.63% level in December is probably the better run rate to start with. Any more color on where you see the margin in the March quarter? I know we usually see the seasonal headwinds in the March quarter, but I was unclear on the commentary if we should anticipate additional headwinds in the March quarter.

Thanks for the question, Matt. So we don't give specific guidance on the NIM. But underlying, we do still see potential for increased spread to pick up in the March quarter due to decrease in deposit costs. So right now, on the loan side, they're sort of at breakeven from what we're seeing maturing off versus where we're seeing new origination rates.

Okay. And Stefan, just to follow up there. Does that imply the liquidity build that we usually see will not happen this year or will happen less?

Yes. We're seeing less impact there. Basically, the inflows that we see seasonally have been partially offset by the decrease in broker deposits.

Okay. That's helpful. And then just one more follow-up on the margin, Stefan. Just big picture, the next several quarters on the margin, it sounds like you still see additional tailwinds to support the margin from current levels, but it sounds like it's going to be much more driven on the deposit cost side and much less driven on the loan repricing side compared to the last year or so. Is that right?

Yes, sir. That's correct.

Next up, we have Nathan Race from Piper Sandler.

Stefan, I think you mentioned you're expecting to see an increase in personnel costs in the March quarter just in light of the increases that you alluded to. I wonder if you could just put some kind of guidepost around the run rate that you're expecting over the next couple of quarters overall.

Yes. So I guess just this is just a seasonal adjustment for annual merit increases. So that's in the ballpark of mid-single-digit increase there.

Okay. But otherwise, expecting any major deviations in the run rates?

Nothing material at this point, just general trend.

Okay. Great. And then...

Historically, we've had annual merit increases in that 4% to 5% range.

Understood. That's helpful. And I appreciate the updated refresh buyback authorization. Can you guys just maybe touch on what the appetite is over the next quarter or so to remain active?

Obviously, activity on the buyback stepped up in the second quarter, but I imagine there's a balance there between building capital for additional acquisition opportunities, which hopefully, it sounds like there's some opportunities that could emerge there later this calendar year.

Yes, we are hopeful that some of those do emerge. As far as buyback activity, we're going to be somewhat price dependent, thinking about how useful it is to deploy the capital there versus retaining it, waiting for a better opportunity.

We always look at that as similar to an outside acquisition and what our earn back is on the premium that we're paying there. So we'll be -- we'll continue to be disciplined on that.

Okay. Great. And then just lastly, curious if there's any additional tail to the charge-offs on the commercial real estate loan that we saw in the December quarter here. And just absent maybe any additional recoveries, just how you're thinking about kind of a more normalized charge-off range over the next several quarters?

We would anticipate being more to historical averages over the upcoming quarters would not anticipate any much of the way of a tailwind behind us. But I think just historical results would be how we did in prior years, not the last 6, 9 months.

And Nathan, specific to the one relationship, if that's what you were asking about, we don't anticipate anything material further on it.

[Operator Instructions] Moving on, we have Charlie Driscoll from KBW.

This is Charlie on for Kelly Motta. Just digging into the margin, wondering your expectations for terminal betas for deposits. I'm not sure if you look at total deposits or interest-bearing, but any updated thoughts on the downward repricing from here, like maybe sizing the impact of cuts.

You mentioned the CDs and the index deposits trending downward, which are nice tailwinds. Maybe if you could help piece it together in general.

Yes. So overall, on the deposit side, we've seen betas around the 40% level. That would probably be something good to use for modeling purposes.

Great. Appreciate it. And then you seem optimistic about M&A. You mentioned plenty of banks in your footprint. If you could maybe narrow in on any preference you have for any sort of size and if you're looking for something within your footprint or adjacent, any additional color there would be great.

We would prefer M&A within our footprint, but if something is right adjacent to us, I mean, that's something we definitely would look at. We look at each one individually as far as what's the underlying performance of the bank, what do we think we can do with it to grow and we look at each opportunity individually and how well does it contribute to our overall shareholder return looking forward.

So we will consider either in our footprint or adjacent. It just really depends upon each deal and what they bring to the table on who we more aggressively pursue.

Our questions queue are now clear. I'll hand it back to Matt Funke for final remarks. Matt?

Thank you, James, and thank you, everyone, for participating. We appreciate your interest in the company. Happy to report on a good quarter for the company, and we'll talk to you again in 3 months. Have a good day.

Thank you, everyone.

And this concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a great day.

Hello everyone, and thank you for joining us today for the Southern Missouri Bancorp Earnings Conference Call. My name is Sammy and I'll be coordinating your call today. [Operator Instructions]. I would now like to hand over to your host, Stefan Chkautovich, Executive Vice President and CFO, to begin. Please go ahead, Stefan.

Thank you, Sammy. Good morning, everyone. This is Stefan Chkautovich, CFO of 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 Wednesday, October 22, 2025 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 Matt Funke, President and Chief Administrative Officer. Matt will lead off our conversation today with some highlights from our most recent quarter.

Thanks, Stefan. Good morning, everyone. This is Matt Funke. I'll start off with some highlights on our financial results for the September quarter, which is the first quarter of our fiscal year. Compared to the June linked quarter, we had relatively stable earnings and profitability with solid growth in net interest income, which stemmed from loan growth and further net interest margin expansion and the decline in operating expenses. These improvements were offset by a larger provision for credit losses and a decrease in fee income.

The larger provision was attributable to the evolving economic environment, additions to individually renewed loans and loan growth. We feel we have good momentum on pre-provision net revenue to start the year, and we're optimistic about how we'll perform in the new fiscal year.

The diluted EPS figure for the current quarter was $1.38, down $0.01 from the linked June '25 quarter but up $0.28 from the September quarter a year ago. During the quarter, we continued working with the consultant to complete the renegotiation of a significant contract.

We have recognized some expenses on this renegotiation in the linked quarter. But because this was on a contingency basis and because the renegotiation worked out well for us, we had additional expense to recognize in the current quarter. These totaled $572,000, reducing after-tax net income by $444,000 or $0.04 per fully diluted common share.

Between the linked quarter and the current quarter, we have recognized right at $1 million in consulting expenses related to the contract renegotiation. But with the expected increase in revenues, which will flow through bank card interchange income, we estimate a less than 18-month earn back of the expense.

Reported noninterest income was down by 9.7% or $707,000 compared to the linked quarter, but was more than offset by lower noninterest expense of $925,000 or a 3.6% decrease quarter-over-quarter. Stefan will give some more color on these drivers in a bit.

Net interest margin for the quarter was 3.57%, up from 3.47% and for the fourth quarter of fiscal '25, the linked quarter and from 3.34% in the year ago quarter. Net interest income was up 5.2% quarter-over-quarter due to the NIM expansion and loan growth.

As we indicated last quarter, we have updated our quarterly NIM calculation to annualized results for the actual day count, which should reduce volatility in the reported NIM due to differences in quarterly day counts. Under the old methodology, the current quarter's NIM would have been reported at 3.60%, but we're reporting at 3.57% due to the September quarter having 92 days.

By contrast, the June quarter is reported at 347 under the new methodology, but under the old methodology was 91 days, it was originally reported at $346 and we've carried this updated annualization method over to all our profitability ratios for the current and historical periods in the earnings release.

On the balance sheet, gross loan balances increased by $91 million or 2.2% during this first quarter, which would be 8.8% annualized. Loan balances increased by $225 million or 5.7% over the last 12 months. Growth in the quarter was led by nonowner-occupied CRE, 1-4 family residential, C&I and multifamily loans.

We experienced strong growth in our East region where we have much of our ag activity and our South region was just behind with good growth in those markets. Even with solid loan growth for the last 2 quarters, our loan pipeline anticipated to fund in the next 90 days remain strong, totaling about $195 million at September 30.

The September quarter is historically our strongest period of loan growth, and we would expect to see this pace slow next quarter as we start receiving ag line paydowns and a general slowing in new projects in the winter months. That said, we had a great quarter of loan growth and feel optimistic about achieving mid-single-digit loan growth in the fiscal year.

Deposit balances were relatively flat compared to the linked quarter, but up $240 million or 5.9% over the last 12 months. Due to good deposit growth over the last year, we've been able to be less aggressive on promotional deposit pricing, and we've called some higher-priced brokered CDs prior to maturity.

Looking at our core deposit base, excluding broker, we had an increase of about $14 million this quarter, driven mainly by savings account growth. We have $20 million in additional brokerage CDs maturing by the end of the calendar year and about $18 million in brokered money market deposits expected to move out in October at the beginning of this new quarter. We'd expect to replace that with seasonal inflow of funds from ag customers and public units in the second quarter.

Tangible book value was $43.35 per share and increased by $5.9 or 13.3% over the last 12 months. This was mostly attributed to earnings retention, while improvement in the bank's unrealized loss in the investment portfolio from the decrease in market interest rates contributed a little less than $0.20 of that year-over-year improvement.

Additionally, in the current quarter, we've repurchased just over 8,000 shares at an average price of just under $55 for a total of $447,000. The average purchase price was 127% of tangible book value at September 30. I'll hand it over now to Greg for some additional discussion.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. I'm going to start off with credit quality. Overall, problem asset levels have increased slightly since last quarter but remain at modest levels with adversely classified loans at $55 million or 1.3% of total loans, up $5 million or 0.1% since last quarter.

Nonperforming loans were $26 million at September 30 and totaled 0.62% of gross loans, an increase of $3 million or 6 basis points compared to last quarter. This was primarily attributed to 1 commercial relationship consisting of 2 loans collateralized by owner-occupied commercial real estate and equipment as well as 3 unrelated loans secured by 1 to 4 family residential properties, all of which were placed on nonaccrual status during the first quarter of our fiscal year.

Nonperforming assets were about $27 million and increased about $3.4 million quarter-over-quarter, which most of the increase due to the increase in nonperforming loans. As reported last quarter, we are continuing to work with the borrowers on the 2 specific purpose, nonowner-occupied CRE properties in different states with guarantors and common and originally leased to a single tenant who has since become installed.

As of June 30, the balances on those loans totaled $6.2 million, but are now down to $2.8 million at September 30 after charging off the collateral shortfall with the appraisal on the other parcel of CRE this quarter. As we indicated last quarter, we had provisioned for these anticipated charge-offs on the relationship. And during this quarter, they accounted for roughly 75% of our total of $3.7 million in net charge-offs.

Another item of note is one of these properties was recently leased at a higher rate than what was assumed in the appraise loans past due 30 to 89 days were about $12 million, up $6 million from June and 30 basis points on gross loans. This is an increase of 15 basis points compared to the linked quarter.

Overall, total delinquent loans were $29 million, up $4 million from the June quarter. The increase in the 30- to 89-day past due bucket was due to an increase in past due loans under 60 days, primarily in our owner-occupied CRE and C&I loan segments.

In the owner-occupied segment, the largest loan, 30 to 59 days totals $3.6 million. And then C&I, the largest is $2.1 million. These 2 loans are the relationship discussed earlier that went to nonperforming status during the quarter.

Despite the increase in problem loans experienced over the last 2 quarters, these issues remain at modest levels, and our asset quality has moved to be more in line with industry averages. In combination with strong underwriting and adequate reserves, we feel comfortable with our ability to work through our problem credits and any potential wider deterioration that could occur as a byproduct from the general economic conditions. So I don't want to give the impression that we're accepting of these trends, and we have been focusing on improving our credit quality.

Our agricultural update, from June 30, our ag real estate balances were up about $11 million over the quarter and up $16 million compared to the same quarter a year ago. While production loan balances increased $23 million for the quarter and are up $29 million year-over-year, we have seen a general increase in ag production line utilization due to increased input cost.

Our agricultural customers experienced a mixed growing season in 2025. Early planting was possible as a result of favorable weather but heavy rains in several markets delayed progress on crops such as cotton and soybeans. As the summer turned dry, growing conditions improved for early planted crops, though irrigation costs rose adding to an already expensive production year.

Harvest has progressed well with most corn and rice acres complete and significant progress on soybeans and cotton. Yields have generally been above to -- have been average to above average on most of our ground, especially on the irrigated ground.

The dryer fall has allowed our farmers to begin field work early in preparation for the 2026 crop season. Our overall crop mix for consisted of roughly 30% soybeans, 30% corn, 20% cotton, 15% rice and 5% specialty crops.

Commodity prices, however, remained a headwind across most sectors. Lower future pricing for soybeans, corn, rice and cotton, combined with elevated input and interest costs, has pressured producers' margins despite generally strong yields.

Many farmers are relying on storage strategies, which could lead to some reduction in what might have normally been paid down in the current quarter on credit lines and USDA programs such as CCC loans to bridge cash flow gaps, make required payments on credit lines. At present, we are hoping for government support payments to help provide needed relief later in the year.

Land values are currently stable while equipment values have softened slightly as producers scale back on capital purchases. Our ag lenders are working proactively with borrowers to assess their current positions, plan for restructuring where necessary and utilize FSA and USDA programs to mitigate risk and maintain strong long-term relationships with our farm customers as they plan for '26.

Due to our stringent underwriting, including stress commodity pricing and assumed higher operating costs. We anticipate that our borrowers were generally be able to navigate this challenging year and should ensure satisfactory performance of these credits over the near term.

In addition, due to prolonged weakness in the agricultural segment, we started to increase reserves for watch list ag borrowers in the March '25 quarter in our calculation for our allowance for credit losses. I'll pass things on to Stefan to add more color on our results.

Thanks, Greg. Going into a little more detail on the income statement. Looking at this quarter's net interest margin of 3.57%, that's up 10 basis points quarter-over-quarter and included about 7 basis points of fair value discount accretion on acquired loan portfolios and premium amortization on assumed liabilities.

That impact is up compared to the linked June quarter of 5 basis points and down from 9 basis points in the prior year September quarter. As stated in prior quarters, we would expect to see the level of fair value accretion decline over time. The current quarter's bump resulted from a payoff of a relationship that had a larger amount of accretable yield.

The net interest margin expanded over the linked quarter as the yield on interest-earning assets increased 8 basis points, primarily due to loan yield expansion, while the cost of interest-bearing liabilities declined 1 basis point. In addition, the net interest margin benefited from an increase in the loan-to-deposit ratio.

Although our spread has improved meaningfully over the last 2 years, we still see some room for incremental improvement as over the next 12 months, we have about $550 million of fixed rate loans maturing with an average rate of about 6.5% compared to our origination rates for the month of about 70%.

On the deposit side, we have almost 1.2 billion CDs maturing next 12 months with an average rate of $4.10 compared to our average new and renewed CD rate of about $3.90. With the improvement in the margin, growth of our earning asset base and the market outlook for further rate cuts, we expect to see continued net interest income growth through the year.

That said, I do want to remind our audience that starting in the December quarter and peaking in the March quarter, we historically see a slowdown in loan growth and an increase in deposits that will weigh on the margin, but we still expect to see positive improvement in net interest income overall.

Our average loan-to-deposit ratio for the March 2025 quarter was 94.2% for some perspective. Also with this, our balance sheet becomes more neutral from an interest rate risk perspective in these quarters due to the increase in interest-bearing cash. But overall, through the seasonal cycle, we expect to remain liability sensitive and a net beneficiary of rate cuts over a full year period.

Noninterest income was down $707,000 or 9.7% compared to the linked quarter, driven by lower other loan fees and bank card interchange income. The prior quarter included $537,000 of annual card network [indiscernible]. Excluding that item, noninterest income would have been down about 2.5%.

Other loan fees declined $723,000, primarily reflecting a refinement in our fee recognition under ASC 310-20 with a greater portion of loan fees now recognized in interest income over the life of loan. In total, for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, about $1.6 million of additional fee income is being deferred, but is more than offset by $1.9 million of deferred expenses, which drove a decline in compensation and benefits.

Overall, we saw a decrease of $925,000 or 3.6% in noninterest expense quarter-over-quarter. The net expense that was deferred had a negative impact in interest income of $176,000 or a 1 basis point drag on the net interest margin.

In total, these changes had a limited impact of recognizing 55,000 in additional net income in the quarter as we deferred more expenses than fee income, which will be realized through interest income over the life of a loan.

With these changes, year-over-year comparisons are not truly comparable, but our first quarter results should serve as a baseline starting point for noninterest income and expenses. The allowance for credit losses at September 30, 2025, totaled $52.1 million, representing 124 gross loans and 200% of nonperforming loans, as compared to an ACL of $51.6 million, which represented $126 million of gross loans and 224% of nonperforming loans at our June 30, 2025 fiscal year-end.

Net charge-offs in the first quarter were 36 basis points annualized compared to the linked quarter of 53 basis points. Both quarters experienced elevated net charge-offs, primarily due to the special purpose CRE relationship mentioned previously. The current quarter's charge-off on this relationship was previously reserved for in the prior fiscal year with no additional provision for credit loss attributed to it in the first quarter of fiscal 2026.

Our provision for credit loss was $4.5 million in the quarter ended September 30, 2025, as compared to a PCL of $2.2 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year and $2.5 million in the linked June quarter. The increase in the provision this quarter, as Matt mentioned earlier, was due to our outlook on the current macro environment, as well as to provide for individually reserved loans, loan growth and a slightly higher reserve required for pool loans.

Due to the charge-offs realized on a special purpose CRE relationship attributable to individually reviewed loans decreased compared to the linked quarter. Our non-owner CRE concentration at the bank level as defined by regulatory guidance decreased by just over 6 percentage points quarter-over-quarter to $2.96 of our regulatory capital. Although our CRE balances grew compared to the linked quarter and was surpassed by greater growth of Tier 1 capital reserves. On a consolidated basis, our CRE ratio was 285% at September 30.

To wrap up, despite some carryover cleanup of problem loan relationship from the prior fiscal year, our strong pre-provision earnings led by expanding net interest margin and disciplined expense management have driven improved core profitability and we remain optimistic about sustaining this positive momentum and delivering earnings growth through the remainder of fiscal year 2026. Greg, any closing thoughts?

Thanks, Stefan. I would like to highlight that we delivered another strong quarter of earnings, reflecting the strength and consistency of our core operations. While charge-offs and nonperforming loans have remained elevated over the last 2 quarters off of very low levels.

Our level of nonperforming loans remains comparable to national averages for banks under $10 million. Our underlying earnings momentum remains solid and that strength has allowed us to prudently reserve for potential problems in the future quarters. We will remain diligent in monitoring and measuring risk, ensuring sound underwriting practices across the portfolio to support strong risk adjusted returns for our shareholders.

Also, since last quarter, we've seen a modest uptick in M&A discussions, while market conditions have stabilized somewhat. We remain optimistic about the potential for attractive opportunities and with our solid capital base and proven financial performance, I believe we are well positioned to act when the right partner is ready.

Notably, there are approximately 50 banks headquartered in Missouri and 24 in Arkansas with assets between $500 million and $2 billion, along with another meaningful number of others in adjacent markets, providing a broad landscape for potential partnerships.

Lastly, with the profitability and earnings improvement over the last 2 years, we have continued to build capital in the absence of M&A activity. We were able to repurchase a modest number of shares in the first quarter of our fiscal year with a reasonable earn-back period. And with the recent market sell-off in bank stock prices, it has created a positive environment for us to potentially be able to repurchase additional shares. Thanks.

Thanks, Greg. At this time, Sammy, we're ready to take questions from our participants. So if you would, please remind folks how they may queue for questions at this time.

[Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from Matt Olney from Stephens.

I want to start on credit. And we saw some migration this quarter that you noted and that, of course, comes after some migration the previous quarter. So when you take a step back on credit, it feels like we're just seeing some broader deterioration. What color would you give us as far as an outlook for provision expense charge-offs from here? Should we just anticipate these metrics could remain a little higher the next few quarters, likely what we saw in the last 2 quarters? Any color would be appreciated.

We would be surprised if charge-off activity remained at the level of the last 2 quarters. We would expect that to drop. We have seen rising trends in delinquent loans back to our current delinquency levels are running similar to what they did in 2018, 2019. And so I think we've basically trended back to more of a historical range on delinquencies.

Charge-offs are just hard to totally predict. Would expect them to be down from what they were in the last 2 quarters Economically, we're just -- we're not certain what holds in the future. But we definitely hope for better charge-off ratios and would not anticipate based on what we know today, charge-off or provisioning to be as high as it was this quarter.

Okay. I appreciate that, Greg. And then I guess, shifting over towards the margin, Stefan, some really nice expansion that you noted this quarter. It sounds like there's a tailwind there from the repricing dynamics that you mentioned.

Any other color you can provide as far as the bank's rate sensitivity. It sounds like you're still liability-sensitive, but can be volatile quarter-to-quarter. Just we're trying to size what the impact of additional Fed cuts, what that could mean for the margin at the bank.

Yes. Overall, as I stated earlier, we should still be overall liability sensitive. That could change a little bit with the positioning of our balance sheet. So given the influx that we're expecting in deposits, which will add to our Fed funds essentially. That will make us a little bit more neutral for a quarter or 2. But overall, we'll still be a net beneficiary of, call it, 1% to 3% net interest income per 100 basis points of rate cuts.

Okay. Perfect. So it sounds like for the margin, there's still the repricing dynamic tailwinds with flat rates. And if we want to assume additional rate cuts, that would be I guess, incremental from that dynamic?

Yes, sir.

Okay. And then I guess just lastly, Stefan, you hit on expenses briefly, really good just overall cost controls this quarter. And it sounds like this is a good run rate to go off of. Any more color on just what the drivers of the cost controls were in the third quarter?

Yes. The ASC 310-20 changes that we made were the main driver there for expenses. So this is a good baseline to use. We will see a little bit of a step-up come our 3Q with merit increases, but this is a good baseline to start from.

Our next question comes from Nathan Race from Piper Sandler.

Curious just to get an update, and I apologize if you already touched on this as I hopped on late, but just an update just in terms of where the pipeline stands coming out of the quarter and just how you're thinking about kind of net loan growth and if you have any visibility if you're expecting any increase in payoffs as rates continue to come down in the short end at least over the next handful of quarters?

Pay down? Yes, Nathan, we've got a pretty consistent pipeline September compared to where we've been in the last few quarters. We would expect things to slow down just seasonally into the December quarter, probably trailing into the March quarter as well, but still feeling good at that mid-single-digit growth for the fiscal year.

And then as far as any payoff potential due to additional rate cuts, I wouldn't really see anything material on that generally, the stuff that we have that at a lower rate not as eager to pay us off. It's not going to be affected by 25, 50 basis points.

The biggest unknown we have in potential payoff activity would be from the ag portfolio. We really don't know what's going to happen with ag prices and how soon farmers will market their crops. So that could have a $10 million, $20 million impact on loan growth one way or the other.

Got you. Okay. And then just given loan deposit ratio around 96%, 97% coming out of the quarter. Matt, is the expectation that deposit gathering can largely keep pace with that kind of mid-single-digit loan growth outlook for this fiscal year? Just curious to maybe get your thoughts on kind of opportunities to increase on the right side of the balance sheet from a deposit gathering perspective.

Yes, I think we feel pretty good about our opportunity to maintain loan-to-deposit ratios where they've been over the last couple of years, seasonally adjusted, but we do look to reduce our broker reliance a little bit. We've worked on that so far, and we expect that to continue into the new year.

Okay. Great. And then is there any additional appetite on the buyback front, at least over the near term, it sounds like you're having a nice pickup in M&A discussions but just curious how you're thinking about allocating excess capital.

Obviously, organic growth remains a priority, but I would love to just hear any updated thoughts on how you're thinking about the buyback over the next quarter or 2? And Greg, I would appreciate any commentary in terms of the size of potential deals you're considering and what that potential timing looks like.

Buyback activity, we would anticipate to be more active given current pricing. We kind of target earnback on buying shares back of around that 3-year horizon, with current pricing, we would be within that 3-year earn-back period or a little less than that. So I would anticipate us being more aggressive buying shares back.

We still have -- Stefan?

200,000.

200,000 roughly of shares authorized for repurchase. So we would anticipate buying back some of those shares based on current pricing and earn back. Generally, on the M&A front, our ideal size would be more in that $1 billion asset range. And that's where we're most interested. And we are talking with some people, but I'm not anticipating anything to be immediately forthcoming.

And then I apologize if I could ask one more. I appreciate you guys cleaned up some of the commercial real estate loans that have been discussed over the last handful of quarters.

So are those loans marked at a level coming out of the quarter where you don't see additional charge-offs? I believe you had mentioned earlier that you're expecting charge-offs to decline going forward, closer to your historical well below average levels, but just want to make sure I'm thinking about the future charge-off trajectory early in light of those 2 commercial loans.

I mean we expect that the trajectory on charge-offs to move lower, absent any unforeseen circumstances. And we don't have -- we don't have anything that we know that's a problem coming up, but you never know.

And specifically with those 2 loans, Nathan, those charge-offs have been fully realized as far as we know.

We currently have no further questions. So at this time, I'd like to hand back to Matt for some closing remarks.

Thanks, Sammy. Thank you all for joining us. I appreciate your interest, and we'll speak again in about 3 months. Have a good day.

This concludes today's call. We thank everyone for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.