Bear State Financial Declares $0.025 Cash Dividend

Bear State Financial, Inc.

disclosed that its Board of Directors authorized a $0.025 cash dividend per share to its shareholders. The company has fixed a record at the close of May 2 to determine the names of the eligible shareholders to get the dividend. The company indicated that the dividend would be payable on May 16. This was the first cash dividend issued by the company after the recapitalization of Bear State Bank, its fully-owned subsidiary, by Bear State Financial Holdings, LLC in May 2011. Bear State Financial CEO, Mark McFatridge, commented, "We are pleased to be able to share the success at Bear State with our shareholders." He added that "Since May 2011, the Company has seen a return to profitability and completed two acquisitions, increasing assets from $577 million to $1.92 billion. We believe the ability to return value to our shareholders is an indication of the Company's strength and the tremendous progress we have made from the recapitalization to the present." Shares of the company traded higher by 1.33% on Friday.