CPBI

Central Plains is the holding company for Home Federal Savings, an 1935-vintage, federally-chartered thrift running nine offices across southcentral Nebraska, lending mainly into 1-4 family residential and commercial real estate. It completed its mutual-to-stock conversion on October 19, 2023, selling 4,130,815 shares at $10.00 for ~$41.3M gross. FY2026 (ended 3/31/26) shows steady, low-risk growth: net income $4.00M (+9.5%), diluted EPS $1.05 (+9.4%), assets $559M (+9.8%) and operating cash flow up 49.9% to $6.69M. The filing notes the bank 'has not needed to use significant levels of borrowings,' and at 5.28x liabilities/equity it is markedly under-levered for a depository — a direct legacy of the conversion that left it sitting on $89.0M of equity, roughly 16% of assets.

That excess capital is the whole story, and it cuts both ways. On the negative side it crushes returns: ROE is just 4.5%, and on a standalone earnings basis an 18.1x P/E for a sub-$5M-net-income community thrift is full. On the positive side, the $89.0M equity against 4.18M shares implies book value of ~$21.29/share, so at $18.99 the stock trades around 0.89x book. Recently-converted thrifts are a well-worn value pattern: overcapitalized, prone to buy back stock below book, and frequently acquired once the standard three-year regulatory anti-takeover restriction lapses. With the conversion dated October 2023, that window opens around October 2026 — a concrete, near-dated catalyst. Buybacks are already running ($679K, +64.4%), accretive while shares sit under book.