Name: First Savings Financial Group, Inc. Q4 2024 Earnings Call
Start: 2024-10-31T00:00:00.000Z

Executive Summary

Q4 FY2024 delivered a sharp swing to profitability: net income $3.67M and diluted EPS $0.53; core banking drove the quarter while SBA lending remained a modest drag .
Margin stabilized and slightly improved sequentially (tax-equivalent NIM 2.72% vs 2.67% in Q3), with efficiency ratio improving materially year over year (70.55% vs 103.19% in Q4’23) as mortgage banking wind-down effects rolled off .
Asset quality remained stable-to-improving: NPLs 0.85% of loans and NPAs 0.71% of assets; allowance 1.07% of loans at quarter-end .
Capital return resumed: board declared a $0.15 quarterly cash dividend payable Dec 31, 2024 (record date Dec 16, 2024) .

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well
- Material operating leverage improvement: efficiency ratio improved to 70.55% (from 103.19% in Q4’23), reflecting cost actions and exit of national mortgage banking .
- Margin stabilization: tax-equivalent NIM rose to 2.72% from 2.67% in Q3, signaling easing funding pressure and better mix .
- Core banking strength: Core Banking segment generated $4.09M net income vs $1.48M in Q4’23, highlighting resilient franchise earnings . CEO: “We believe the efforts of fiscal 2024 along with the focus for fiscal 2025 will deliver enhanced shareholder value.” .
What Went Wrong
- Noninterest income headwind: down to $2.84M from $5.44M in Q4’23, primarily from the ceased mortgage banking business .
- Higher loan loss provisioning: provision for credit losses on loans of $1.81M vs $0.82M in Q4’23 under CECL and reflecting loan growth dynamics .
- SBA Lending segment loss: posted a $(0.42)M quarterly loss despite positive gain-on-sale activity, underscoring near-term profitability pressure in that line .

Metric	Q4 2023	Q2 2024	Q3 2024	Q4 2024
Total Interest Income ($M)	$28.14	$30.02	$32.22	$32.22
Total Interest Expense ($M)	$12.60	$15.68	$17.15	$17.15
Net Interest Income ($M)	$15.54	$14.34	$15.08	$15.08
Provision for Credit Losses – Loans ($M)	$0.82	$0.45	$1.81	$1.81
Noninterest Income ($M)	$2.78	$3.71	$2.84	$2.84
Noninterest Expense ($M)	$16.04	$11.78	$12.64	$12.64
Income (Loss) Before Tax ($M)	$0.44	$5.79	$3.82	$3.82
Income Tax (Benefit) Expense ($M)	$(0.48)	$0.87	$0.15	$0.15
Net Income ($M)	$0.92	$4.93	$3.67	$3.67
Diluted EPS ($)	$0.13	$0.72	$0.53	$0.53
Net Interest Margin (Tax-Equiv) (%)	2.69%	2.66%	2.72%	2.72%
Efficiency Ratio (%)	94.93%	65.26%	70.55%	70.55%

Segment Results (Net Income)

Segment Net Income ($M)	Q4 2023	Q3 2024	Q4 2024
Core Banking	$1.48	$4.09	$4.09
SBA Lending	$(0.83)	$(0.42)	$(0.42)
Mortgage Banking	$(1.40)	$0.00	$0.00

Key KPIs and Asset Quality

KPI	Q4 2023	Q2 2024	Q3 2024	Q4 2024
Nonperforming Loans / Total Loans (%)	0.83%	0.82%	0.85%	0.85%
Nonperforming Assets / Total Assets (%)	0.69%	0.68%	0.71%	0.71%
ACL / Total Loans (%)	1.01%	1.02%	1.07%	1.07%
Net Charge-offs / Avg Loans (%)	0.00%	0.01%	0.02%	0.01%
Return on Avg Assets (annualized) (%)	0.16%	0.92%	0.61%	0.61%

SBA Program Activity

SBA Sales Metrics	Q4 2023	Q3 2024	Q4 2024
Final Funded Guaranteed Portion Sold ($M)	$14.10	$10.88	$10.79
Gross Gain on Sales ($M)	$1.30	$1.03	$1.14
Weighted Avg Gross Gain (%)	9.24%	9.46%	10.58%
Net Gain on Sales ($M)	$0.83	$0.65	$0.71
Weighted Avg Net Gain (%)	5.92%	5.95%	6.59%

Metric	Period	Previous Guidance	Current Guidance	Change
Formal financial guidance (revenue, margins, OpEx, taxes)	FY2025 onward	Not provided	Not provided	Maintained (no formal guidance)
Dividend per share	Q4 2024 declaration	N/A	$0.15 payable Dec 31, 2024 (record Dec 16, 2024)	Capital return resumed

Note: No Q4 FY2024 earnings call transcript was found; themes below reflect management disclosures across the last three quarters’ releases.

Topic	Previous Mentions (Q2 & Q3 FY2024)	Current Period (Q4 FY2024)	Trend
Net Interest Margin	“Stabilization of the net interest margin” in Q3; positioned to benefit in rates-down environment .	NIM ticked up to 2.72% (from 2.67% in Q3) .	Improving/stable
Deposit Mix & Funding	Slower migration to higher-cost types; deposit growth focus .	Funding costs elevated YoY but stable QoQ; efficiency improved .	Stabilizing
Mortgage Banking Exit	National mortgage banking ceased in Q1 FY2024; MRSA portfolio sold .	Year-over-year noninterest expense down; noninterest income lower without mortgage .	Structural reset complete
SBA Lending	Q3: pipeline strong but results “disappointing,” evaluating strategies .	Continued segment loss $(0.42)M despite healthy gain-on-sale metrics .	Mixed; execution focus
Asset Quality	Enhanced review and discipline; strong asset quality .	NPLs 0.85%; ACL 1.07% of loans .	Stable
Capital & Liquidity	Improving liquidity/capital and IRR positions .	Efficiency improved; book value per share $25.72 .	Positive

“Fiscal 2024 was, in many ways, a year of rebuilding, repositioning and refinement… we are confident that the Company is well positioned to better perform in fiscal 2025 and the years thereafter regardless of the economic environment.” — Larry W. Myers, President & CEO .
On focus areas: “For fiscal 2025 we’ll remain focused on core banking; strong asset quality; selective high-quality lending; core deposit growth; increased SBA lending volume; continued improvement of liquidity, capital and interest rate sensitivity positions; and strategic opportunities.” .

No Q4 FY2024 earnings call transcript or Q&A was available in our document set. We searched for “earnings-call-transcript” and found none for the period [ListDocuments: earnings-call-transcript 0 results].

S&P Global consensus estimates: We attempted to retrieve Wall Street consensus for Q4 FY2024 (EPS and revenue) but were unable to access S&P Global data due to a request limit error at the time of analysis, so we cannot provide a definitive beat/miss assessment versus consensus for this quarter. Values retrieved from S&P Global could not be accessed due to temporary system limits.
As a result, estimate comparisons are unavailable in this report.

Earnings inflected: Core Banking earnings strength and lower operating costs underpinned $0.53 diluted EPS in Q4; operating leverage improved materially YoY as mortgage banking exit effects normalize .
Margin base looks firmer: NIM improved sequentially to 2.72% and interest rate spread held, suggesting funding cost pressures are stabilizing heading into FY2025 .
Credit quality steady: NPLs/loans at 0.85% and ACL/loans at 1.07% provide a solid cushion; net charge-offs remained low .
SBA remains a work-in-progress: continued segment losses despite decent gain-on-sale economics; execution on volume, costs, and mix will be key to unlocking earnings in this line .
Capital/return: With the $0.15 dividend declared for payment on Dec 31, 2024, the board signals confidence in the franchise’s earnings power and capital trajectory .
Setup into FY2025: Management’s focus on core deposit growth, selective lending, and liquidity/capital positions supports a constructive medium-term thesis as margin and costs continue to normalize .