Guaranty Federal Announces Dividend

SPRINGFIELD, Mo., Dec. 20, 2002 -- Guaranty Federal Bancshares, Inc. the holding company for Guaranty Federal Savings Bank today announced a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share on 2,779,895 shares of its common stock to be paid on January 24, 2003, to stockholders of record on January 10, 2003.

There are 15,727 shares remaining to be purchased in order to complete the repurchase of 437,764 shares of common stock that was announced on January 5, 2001. The repurchase of 300,000 shares of common stock announced on November 22, 2002 will commence as soon as the above plan has been completed.

Guaranty Federal Bancshares, Inc. is the holding company for Guaranty Federal Savings Bank, a full service bank serving the Springfield area. The company's common stock trades on the NASDAQ National Market under the symbol "GFED".

The discussion set forth above may contain forward-looking comments. Such comments are based upon the information currently available to management of the Company and management's perception thereof as of the date of this release. Actual results of the Company's operations could materially differ from those forward-looking comments. The differences could be caused by a number of factors or combination of factors including, but not limited to: changes in demand for banking services; changes in portfolio composition; changes in management strategy; increased competition from both bank and non-bank companies; changes in the general level of interest rates; the effect of regulatory or government legislative changes; technology changes; and fluctuation in inflation.

Guaranty Federal Bancshares, Inc. has subsidiary corporations offering banking, investment and insurance services. The principal subsidiary, Guaranty Federal Savings Bank, is located in Springfield, Missouri, and has eight branches and 18 ATM locations located in Greene and Christian Counties. In addition Guaranty Federal is a member of the Privileged Status ATM network, which provides its customers surcharge free access to over 60 area ATM's and over 1,000 ATM's nationwide.

Contacts:
Don M. Gibson, President & CEO
(417)  520-4333