World Acceptance Corporation Stock price
Compare with Peer Group
📊 Peer Group
📈 What is it?
The peer group consists of the companies with the most similar business model. They serve as a benchmark for putting a stock into context.
🧮 How is it selected?
Based on similarity of business model, meaning companies from the same industry with comparable products and a similar customer base. That's the only way to compare apples to apples.
🏛️ Why does it matter?
Whether a stock is cheap or expensive is best judged by comparison. A P/E of 18 or an EV/FCF of 20 can look cheap or expensive depending on the yardstick. The peer group gives you the most accurate one: companies with a similar business model that operate under the same conditions.
🎯 What does it mean for investors?
When a metric sits below the peer average, the stock is valued more cheaply relative to its competitors, and above the average more expensively. A discount to the peer group can be an opportunity, but it can also have a reason (for example lower growth). The comparison is a starting point, not a verdict.
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Key metrics
📘 Market Capitalization
📈 What is it?
Market capitalization shows how much a company is currently worth on the stock market.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps classify companies by size (Large, Mid, Small Cap) and indicates their market presence and relative stability.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Large-cap companies tend to be more stable, often pay dividends, but may grow more slowly.
- Smaller firms may offer higher growth potential but come with more volatility.
- Market capitalization is a useful indicator of company size — but not a measure of whether a stock is undervalued or overvalued.
📘 Enterprise Value (EV)
📈 What is it?
Enterprise Value represents the total cost to acquire a company — including its debt and excluding its cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
(= Market Cap + Net Debt)
🏛️ Why is it important?
EV gives a more complete picture of a company's value than market cap alone and is used in key valuation ratios like EV/FCF or EV/Sales.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Enterprise Value shows the true cost of buying a company, including all financial obligations.
- It is more accurate than just looking at market cap, especially when comparing companies with different levels of debt or cash.
- Professional investors prefer EV-based multiples because they better reflect the company’s full financial footprint.
📘 Net Debt
📈 What is it?
Net Debt shows how much debt remains after subtracting a company’s available cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It indicates how dependent a company is on borrowed money and how easily it can service its debt in the short term.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low or negative net debt signals financial strength and flexibility.
- Companies with strong cash positions are better positioned in crises.
- High net debt increases financial risk — especially in environments with rising interest rates or economic downturns.
📘 Cash
📈 What is it?
Cash represents all liquid assets a company can access immediately — including cash, bank deposits, and short-term investments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It reflects a company’s financial flexibility and resilience — enabling investments, buybacks, or buffer in downturns.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A strong cash position means greater room for maneuver and crisis resistance.
- Cash-rich companies can invest, pay down debt, or repurchase shares.
- But excess idle cash might indicate a lack of growth opportunities.
📘 Shares Outstanding
📈 What is it?
Shares outstanding represent the total number of a company’s shares currently held by investors — excluding treasury stock.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s the basis for key metrics like Earnings Per Share (EPS), Market Capitalization, or the Price/Earnings ratio (P/E).
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Fewer shares in circulation typically increase earnings per share — making each share more valuable.
- Share buybacks reduce the number of shares and boost per-share metrics.
- Issuing new shares does the opposite — diluting shareholder value and lowering per-share figures.
📘 Price-to-Earnings Ratio (P/E)
📈 What is it?
The P/E ratio shows how many times a company's earnings per share are reflected in its current share price — in other words, how "expensive" the stock appears relative to its profits.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The P/E ratio is one of the most widely used valuation metrics. It helps investors assess whether a stock appears cheap or expensive compared to its earnings power.
🧮 Calculation
📊 P/E (TTM) = Based on earnings from the last 12 months (Trailing Twelve Months):🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/E may indicate undervaluation — or signal underlying issues.
- A high P/E may reflect strong growth expectations — or an overvalued stock.
📘 Price-to-Sales Ratio (P/S)
📈 What is it?
The P/S ratio shows how much investors are paying for $1 of the company’s revenue – regardless of profitability.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/S is especially useful for evaluating growth companies or businesses not yet profitable. It reflects how the market values the company’s sales.
🧮 Calculation
Market Cap = $819.54m | Revenue (TTM) = $591.92m
Market Cap = $819.54m | Estimated Revenue = $625.36m
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/S may indicate undervaluation — or low profitability.
- A high P/S can reflect strong growth expectations — or excessive optimism.
- Especially helpful when evaluating companies where profits are low, volatile, or negative.
📘 Enterprise Value to Sales (EV/Sales)
📈 What is it?
EV/Sales shows how much investors are paying for $1 of revenue — considering not just equity, but also debt and cash. It’s the capital structure–adjusted version of the P/S ratio.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s ideal for comparing companies with different levels of debt. It reflects a company's true cost relative to its revenue.
🧮 Calculation
Enterprise Value = $1.38b | Revenue (TTM) = $591.92m
Enterprise Value = $1.38b | Forward Revenue = $625.36m
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EV/Sales allows for capital structure–neutral company comparisons.
- A lower ratio may indicate undervaluation; a higher one may signal strong growth expectations or overvaluation.
- Especially helpful when evaluating high-growth companies with low or negative earnings.
📘 Enterprise Value to Free Cash Flow (EV/FCF) | ex SBC
📈 What is it?
EV/FCF compares a company’s enterprise value with its free cash flow. The metric therefore shows the multiple of current free cash flow at which a company is valued. EV/FCF ex SBC additionally accounts for stock-based compensation (SBC). While SBC does not represent a direct cash outflow, issuing shares as compensation can dilute existing shareholders. Therefore, SBC is deducted from free cash flow in this adjusted version.
🧮 How is it calculated?
EV/FCF ex SBC = Enterprise Value ÷ (Free Cash Flow (TTM) − SBC)
🏛️ Why is it important?
EV/FCF provides a valuation based on free cash flow and therefore complements earnings-based valuation metrics such as the P/E ratio. The ex SBC version additionally accounts for the economic impact of stock-based compensation and provides a more conservative view from a shareholder perspective.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low EV/FCF means that enterprise value is low relative to current free cash flow. The reasons should always be considered in the context of the company and its industry.
- A high EV/FCF means that enterprise value is high relative to current free cash flow. This can, for example, reflect high growth expectations or temporarily weak cash generation.
- When SBC is positive and adjusted free cash flow remains positive, EV/FCF ex SBC is generally higher than the standard EV/FCF.
- The metric is particularly useful for companies with relatively stable and predictable cash flows.
- If free cash flow is negative or very low, EV/FCF has limited usefulness and should not be interpreted like a standard valuation multiple.
📘 Price-to-Book Ratio (P/B)
📈 What is it?
The P/B ratio compares a company’s market value to its book value — showing how much investors are paying for each dollar of net assets.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/B is commonly used for asset-heavy industries like banks or industrials. It helps assess whether a stock is trading above or below its net asset value.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A P/B below 1 may signal undervaluation — or weak profitability.
- A P/B above 1 implies the market expects future value creation (e.g., brand, IP, growth).
- Best used for companies with tangible assets and strong balance sheets.
📘 Equity Ratio
📈 What is it?
The equity ratio indicates what portion of a company’s total assets is financed by shareholders’ equity – in other words, how much it relies on its own capital.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
A high equity ratio reflects financial strength and stability, especially during downturns. It’s a key indicator of a company’s solvency and long-term risk profile.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Companies with high equity ratios are generally more resilient and less dependent on external debt.
- Low equity ratios can signal higher risk or aggressive financial strategies.
- Important: Always assess the equity ratio in combination with the return on equity (ROE). This shows not just how stable the company is – but also how efficiently it uses shareholder capital.
📘 Return on Equity (ROE)
📈 What is it?
Return on equity (ROE) shows how efficiently a company uses its shareholders’ equity to generate profit. In other words: how much net income is earned per dollar of equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROE is a core profitability metric. It helps investors understand whether a company delivers attractive returns on the capital provided by its shareholders.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROE indicates that the company is using its capital efficiently and profitably.
- It’s especially meaningful for capital-intensive businesses or firms with high equity bases.
- Important: A very high ROE can also result from high debt levels – always interpret it alongside the equity ratio to assess financial health.
📘 Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)
📈 What is it?
ROCE measures how efficiently a company generates profits from its total capital – including both equity and interest-bearing debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It evaluates the return on all capital employed, regardless of how it’s financed.
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROCE is ideal for comparing companies with different financing structures. It shows how well management uses capital to create value for both shareholders and creditors.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROCE means the company uses its capital efficiently – regardless of whether it's funded by debt or equity.
- The higher the ROCE compared to peers, the more value the company creates with its invested capital.
- Especially relevant for capital-intensive sectors like industrials, energy, or infrastructure.
📘 Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)
📈 What is it?
ROIC measures how efficiently a company generates returns from the capital invested in its core operations – regardless of whether the capital comes from equity or debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
- NOPAT = Net Operating Profit After Taxes
- Invested Capital = Operating assets minus non-interest-bearing liabilities
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROIC is one of the most accurate indicators of capital efficiency. Unlike return on equity, it is not distorted by leverage and shows how much value is created for all capital providers.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROIC shows how effectively a company uses the capital that is truly invested in its core operations.
- Unlike ROCE, ROIC focuses only on the capital that is actively used to run the business – and that requires a return (i.e. interest-bearing).
- Especially useful when comparing companies with large amounts of excess cash or non-interest-bearing liabilities – giving a more realistic picture of capital efficiency.
📘 Leverage Ratio (Debt-to-Equity)
📈 What is it?
The leverage ratio indicates how much a company relies on interest-bearing debt (such as loans and bonds) relative to its shareholders’ equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
This ratio helps assess a company’s financial structure and risk profile. High leverage can enhance returns – but also increases exposure to interest rate changes and financial stress.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low leverage ratio signals financial strength and independence.
- A higher ratio can improve returns in good times but increases risk during downturns or rising interest rate periods.
- 👉 Always interpret in the context of industry, capital intensity, and interest rate environment.
📘 SBC | in % Revenue
📈 What is it?
SBC (Stock-Based Compensation) refers to equity-based compensation granted by a company to its employees and executives. The percentage shows SBC relative to revenue.
🧮 How is it calculated?
SBC as % of Revenue = (SBC ÷ Revenue) × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
Stock-based compensation is a real cost factor for shareholders. It can increase the number of shares outstanding and therefore dilute existing shareholders. The percentage of revenue shows how heavily a company relies on equity-based compensation and how significant this form of compensation is relative to the size of the business.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A lower figure is generally positive: Stock-based compensation is relatively small compared with the company's revenue.
- A high figure can indicate greater reliance on stock-based compensation and a higher potential risk of dilution. However, it is also important to consider whether the company offsets dilution through share buybacks.
- The trend over time should also be considered. A high but declining percentage presents a different picture from a persistently high or increasing percentage.
- A single-digit SBC-to-revenue ratio is not unusual among many growth-oriented and technology companies.
📘 SBC as % of FCF
📈 What is it?
SBC (Stock-Based Compensation) refers to equity-based compensation granted by a company to its employees and executives. The percentage shows SBC relative to free cash flow (FCF).
🧮 How is it calculated?
SBC as % of FCF = (SBC ÷ Free Cash Flow) × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
Stock-based compensation is a real cost factor for shareholders. It can increase the number of shares outstanding and therefore dilute existing shareholders. The percentage of free cash flow shows how significant SBC is relative to the cash generated by the company. Since SBC is non-cash compensation, it is typically not deducted as a cash outflow when calculating FCF.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A lower value is generally favorable. Stock-based compensation is relatively small compared with the company's cash generation.
- A high value means that SBC represents a significant portion of the company's reported free cash flow, even though SBC itself is non-cash.
- The higher the value, the more significant SBC can be as an economic cost to shareholders, particularly when it results in share dilution.
📘 SBC Growth 1Y
📈 What is it?
SBC Growth 1Y shows how much a company's stock-based compensation has changed compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
SBC Growth shows whether stock-based compensation is becoming more or less significant for shareholders. If SBC increases significantly, it can lead to greater shareholder dilution over time. At the same time, SBC is a non-cash expense that reduces earnings on the income statement but is added back in the cash flow statement.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high positive value is generally negative, as rising SBC can increase the burden on shareholders, particularly through potential dilution.
- What matters is whether the development of SBC is sustainable over the long term. Some level of SBC is common among many growth and technology companies.
📘 Share Count Growth 1Y
📈 What is it?
Share Count Growth 1Y shows how much the number of shares outstanding has increased or decreased over a one-year period.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The number of shares determines how many shares the company's earnings and assets are distributed across. If the share count decreases, existing shareholders' relative ownership increases. If it increases, existing shareholders are diluted. The metric therefore makes dilution and share buybacks directly visible.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A negative value is generally positive, as the number of shares outstanding is decreasing.
- A positive value indicates dilution of existing shareholders.
- A declining share count is not automatically positive: It also matters at what price the shares are repurchased and how the buybacks are financed.
📘 Shareholder Yield
📈 What is it?
Shareholder Yield measures how much capital a company returns to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks, relative to its market capitalization. It goes beyond dividend yield by also including share buybacks.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Dividend yield only tells part of the story. When a company buys back shares and the share count falls, each existing shareholder owns a larger part of the company. When the share count rises, for example through stock-based compensation or new share issuance, existing shareholders are diluted. Shareholder Yield combines both into one metric.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A higher Shareholder Yield indicates more capital being returned to shareholders.
- A negative value means the company issued more new shares than its dividends and buybacks make up for.
- Share buybacks are most beneficial when shares are repurchased at attractive valuations.
- Investors should also consider whether dividends and buybacks are sustainable over time.
📘 Revenue
📈 What is it?
Revenue shows how much a company earns in total from selling its products and services – the gross income before any costs are deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Revenue is one of the key figures to assess a company’s size, market position, and growth potential.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing revenue indicates rising demand and can be an early signal of future earnings growth.
- Comparing actual and expected revenue reveals trends in the market environment and analyst sentiment.
- Note: Strong revenue alone isn’t enough – margins and profitability matter just as much.
📘 EBITDA
📈 What is it?
EBITDA stands for “Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization.” It reflects a company’s operating profit before the effects of financing, taxes, and accounting depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBITDA is widely used to evaluate a company’s operating performance – especially across capital-intensive sectors or international comparisons.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high or growing EBITDA indicates strong operational profitability – independent of taxes, interest, or accounting methods.
- It’s especially useful for comparing companies across sectors or geographies.
- Important: EBITDA is not a net income figure – it excludes key costs like depreciation and interest.
📘 EBIT
📈 What is it?
EBIT stands for “Earnings Before Interest and Taxes.” It reflects a company’s operating profit after depreciation, but before interest and tax expenses.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT is a core profitability metric that shows how well the company performs in its main business operations – independent of capital structure and tax environment.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT indicates strong profitability from the company’s core business – before financial and tax effects.
- It allows better comparison between companies with different debt levels or tax structures.
- Compared to EBITDA, EBIT already accounts for depreciation and reflects capital intensity more clearly.
📘 Net Income
📈 What is it?
Net income is the company’s total profit – the amount left after all expenses, taxes, interest, and depreciation have been deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the most comprehensive measure of a company’s profitability – showing how much actual profit remains after all business and financing costs.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing net income indicates that the company is managing all of its costs efficiently.
- It directly influences valuation metrics like P/E ratio and the company’s dividend capacity.
- Over time, net income trends reveal how resilient and profitable the business model really is.
📘 Free Cash Flow (FCF) | ex SBC
📈 What is it?
Free cash flow shows how much cash remains after a company has covered its operating and capital expenditures. FCF ex SBC additionally deducts stock-based compensation (SBC) to adjust the cash flow for the effect of non-cash SBC.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free Cash Flow ex SBC = Operating Cash Flow − SBC − Capital Expenditures (CAPEX)
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF reflects a company’s actual financial strength – independent of reported accounting earnings. It shows how much flexibility a company has for dividends, share buybacks, or debt reduction. FCF ex SBC also deducts stock-based compensation and shows how much cash generation remains after SBC.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High free cash flow indicates that a company has strong financial strength – independent of reported earnings.
- It is often a solid basis for sustainable dividends and share buybacks.
- Declining FCF can be a warning sign, even if reported earnings remain stable.
📘 Revenue Growth
📈 What is it?
Revenue growth shows how much a company’s sales have changed compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on forward projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected revenue ÷ Revenue in prior year − 1) × 100
Forward growth is based on analyst estimates for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Rising revenue signals growing demand, business expansion, and market share gains – especially important for growth-oriented companies.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growth is the engine of long-term value creation – especially in tech and growth sectors.
- What matters is not just current growth, but its sustainability.
- Forward projections reflect whether analysts expect continued momentum – or a slowdown.
📘 EBITDA Growth
📈 What is it?
EBITDA growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) has increased or decreased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBITDA ÷ EBITDA from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Growing EBITDA indicates improving operational profitability – regardless of financing or accounting effects.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Strong EBITDA growth signals operational efficiency and scalability – especially during growth phases.
- EBITDA growth can be an early indicator of margin and earnings expansion – but should be assessed alongside revenue and EBIT.
📘 EBIT Growth
📈 What is it?
EBIT growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (after depreciation, but before interest and taxes) has increased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBIT ÷ EBIT from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT growth is a direct indicator of a company’s business performance – taking into account capital intensity through depreciation.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Rising EBIT signals improving operating profitability – even after accounting for depreciation.
- It’s especially important for evaluating companies with significant capital expenditures.
- Combined with revenue and EBITDA growth, EBIT growth provides a well-rounded view of operational progress.
📘 Net Income Growth
📈 What is it?
Net income growth shows how much a company’s bottom-line profit has increased or decreased compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on analyst projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected net income ÷ Net income from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate reflects analysts’ expectations for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the ultimate measure of profitability. Growing net income signals stronger efficiency, cost control, and sustainable earnings power.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Stronger net income boosts valuation, dividend potential, and investor confidence.
- If profits stall while revenue grows, it may signal margin pressure.
📘 Free Cash Flow Growth
📈 What is it?
Free cash flow (FCF) growth shows how a company’s available cash – after covering operating expenses and capital expenditures – has changed compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Free cash flow reflects real financial strength. Growing FCF indicates more flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, and reinvestment.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Declining FCF may point to rising investments, increasing costs, or weaker operating performance.
- Especially for dividend investors, FCF growth is critical – since dividends are paid from actual available cash.
- A negative trend isn't always bad, but it deserves closer attention.
📘 Gross Margin
📈 What is it?
Gross margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains after deducting the direct costs of goods sold (like materials and production). It represents the company’s “raw profit” before fixed costs, taxes, and interest.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Or simply: Gross Margin = Gross Profit ÷ Revenue × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
Gross margin indicates how efficiently a company can produce or procure what it sells. It is a key measure of product-level profitability and pricing power.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high gross margin suggests strong pricing power and efficient production.
- Falling margins may signal rising input costs or competitive pressure.
- Compared to peers, gross margin offers insights into the quality of a business model.
📘 EBITDA Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBITDA margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.It reflects operating efficiency without being distorted by financing or accounting factors.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBITDA margin reveals how much operating income a company generates per dollar of revenue – independent of capital structure and tax effects.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBITDA margin reflects strong core profitability – before accounting distortions.
- It allows for effective comparisons across companies and sectors.
- A stable or growing margin signals efficient cost control and business scalability.
📘 EBIT Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBIT margin shows what percentage of revenue remains as operating profit after depreciation but before interest and taxes.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBIT margin reflects a company’s core profitability while accounting for capital intensity (e.g. machinery, infrastructure). It’s especially useful for comparing businesses with different levels of depreciation.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT margin shows that the company remains efficient even after factoring in depreciation.
- It’s especially relevant for capital-intensive industries.
- Stable or rising EBIT margins over time are a strong indicator of pricing power and business quality.
📘 Net Margin
📈 What is it?
Net margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as bottom-line profit after deducting all costs, interest, taxes, and depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net margin reflects a company’s overall efficiency – across operations, financing, and taxation. It shows how much actual profit is generated from each dollar of revenue.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high net margin means the company is not only strong operationally but also manages financing and taxes efficiently.
- Peer comparisons reveal business quality and competitiveness.
- Declining margins despite revenue growth can be a red flag for rising costs or inefficiencies.
📘 Free Cash Flow Margin | ex SBC
📈 What is it?
The Free Cash Flow Margin shows how much free cash flow a company generates relative to its revenue. In simplified terms, free cash flow is calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures. The Free Cash Flow Margin ex SBC additionally accounts for stock-based compensation (SBC). While SBC does not represent a direct cash outflow, issuing shares as compensation can dilute existing shareholders. Therefore, SBC is deducted from free cash flow in this adjusted metric.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free Cash Flow Margin ex SBC = (Free Cash Flow − SBC) ÷ Revenue × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
The Free Cash Flow Margin shows how efficiently a company converts its revenue into free cash flow. Strong free cash flow can provide financial flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, debt repayment, or further investments. The ex SBC version additionally accounts for the economic impact of stock-based compensation and therefore provides a more conservative view of cash generation from a shareholder perspective.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high Free Cash Flow Margin shows that a company converts a high proportion of its revenue into free cash flow.
- This can provide greater financial flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, debt repayment, or investments.
- The Free Cash Flow Margin ex SBC additionally accounts for potential shareholder dilution from stock-based compensation.
- The long-term trend is particularly important. Declining margins can, for example, result from higher investments, changes in working capital, or weaker operating performance.
📘 Earnings per share (EPS)
📈 What is it?
Earnings per Share (EPS) shows how much profit is attributable to a single share – and is one of the most important metrics for evaluating a company's performance.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The diluted share count reflects potential new shares that could be issued through options, convertible bonds, or other rights.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EPS is the basis for many key valuation metrics like P/E ratio, PEG ratio, or payout ratio. It enables comparisons of profitability across companies, regardless of their size.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EPS captures per-share profitability and is especially useful for comparisons over time or with analyst estimates.
- Rising EPS may signal consistent growth or share buybacks.
- Important: Always use diluted EPS for more realistic valuations – especially in companies with stock-based compensation.
📘 Free cash flow per share (FCF per share)
📈 What is it?
Free Cash Flow per Share shows how much free cash flow a company generates per outstanding share – after investments, but before dividends or debt repayments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free cash flow is calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures (CapEx).
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF per Share reveals how much real cash is available per share – useful for dividends, buybacks, or reducing debt. Unlike net income, free cash flow is harder to manipulate and often seen as a more reliable metric.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High FCF per share signals strong financial flexibility.
- It shows how much capital the company can effectively reinvest or return to shareholders.
- Particularly relevant for dividend payers and capital-efficient businesses.
📘 Short interest
📈 What is it?
Short interest indicates how many shares of a company are currently sold short – that is, borrowed and sold by investors who expect the price to decline.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It reflects the percentage of a company’s shares that are being shorted relative to the total shares available.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Short interest serves as a sentiment indicator: A high value may signal skepticism or bearish expectations – but also increases the potential for a short squeeze if prices rise unexpectedly.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low short interest usually indicates market confidence in the company.
- High short interest can be a warning sign – or an opportunity if sentiment shifts.
- Especially relevant in volatile markets or ahead of key earnings releases.
📘 Employees
📈 What is it?
The employee count shows how many people a company employs worldwide – offering insights into its size, structure, and business model.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps assess operational scale, labor intensity, and cost structure. Combined with revenue and profit, it enables key metrics like revenue per employee or productivity.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high headcount can signal operational complexity – but also significant growth capacity.
- Revenue per employee is a key indicator of efficiency.
- Especially useful for comparing tech, industrial, or service-heavy companies.
📘 Revenue per employee
📈 What is it?
Revenue per employee indicates how much revenue a company generates on average per employee – a key measure of efficiency and productivity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The employee count is typically taken from the most recent annual report.
🏛️ Why is it important?
This metric helps compare business models – especially between labor-intensive and technology-driven companies. A high value suggests automation, operational efficiency, or strong value creation per head.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high revenue per employee indicates a scalable and margin-strong business model.
- A low figure may reflect labor-intensive operations or lower value-add.
- Especially helpful when comparing tech companies to industrial or service sectors.
World Acceptance Corporation Stock Analysis
Analyst Opinions
6 Analysts have issued a World Acceptance Corporation forecast:
Analyst Opinions
6 Analysts have issued a World Acceptance Corporation forecast:
World Acceptance Corporation Events
Past Events
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OCT
23
Q2 2027 Earnings Call
13 days ago
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JUL
24
Q1 2027 Earnings Call
3 months ago
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APR
30
Q4 2026 Earnings Call
6 months ago
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JAN
27
Q3 2026 Earnings Call
9 months ago
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OCT
23
Q2 2026 Earnings Call
about one year ago
|
StocksGuide Free
World Acceptance Corporation — Q2 2027 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, and welcome to World Acceptance Corporation's Second Quarter Fiscal 2027 Earnings Conference Call. This call is being recorded. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode.
Before we begin, the corporation has requested that I make the following announcement. The comments made during this conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that represent the corporation's expectations and beliefs concerning future events.
Such forward-looking statements are matters that are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties. And statements other than those of historical fact as well as those identified by words anticipate, estimate, intend, planned, expect, believe, may, will and should or any variation of the foregoing and similar expressions are forward-looking statements.
Additional information regarding forward-looking statements and any factors that could cause actual results or performance to differ from the expectations expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements are included in the paragraph discussing forward-looking statements in today's earnings press release and in the Risk Factors section of the corporation's most recent Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026 and subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the SEC from time to time. The corporation does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements it makes.
At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, John Calmes, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, and thank you for joining our fiscal 2027 2nd quarter earnings call. We are pleased with our second quarter results, and more importantly, we believe we are well positioned for the remainder of fiscal 2027 this quarter reflects steady progress against our core priorities: growing loan portfolio responsibly, improving credit quality and maintaining a disciplined approach to expenses. .
We achieved adjusted earnings per share of $1.92 for the second quarter. Earnings benefited from a 3.2% increase in revenue as well as a 7.7% decrease in provision expense.
Importantly, our credit quality continued to improve. We saw improvement in delinquency on both the front end and back end. Most overly front-end delinquency decreased from 20% to 18.9%. These trends reinforce our confidence in the health of the portfolio and the strength of our underwriting.
On expenses, we saw improvement in our G&A expense, and we expect to maintain disciplined approach to expenses going forward.
At this time, Tobin Turner, our Chief Operating Officer, and I would like to open up to any questions you may have.
[Operator Instructions] The first question will come from Kyle Joseph with Stephens.
2. Question Answer
I want to pick your brain on what's going on macro, specifically. Just kind of want to get a sense for how sensitive is the consumer or your consumer to gas prices? Is it to the point where you kind of see delinquencies kind of move in line with gas prices or are we at the point where gas is less of an important portion of their budget?
Yes. Historically, we've always seen that gas prices will have an impact on the -- our customer, right? But right now, we've been pretty conservative in our underwriting. So overall, the credit metrics continue to improve. So I guess you could ask with the where they've improved about more than they have, if we didn't have sort of higher gas prices, it's hard to know that for sure. But in general, with our portfolio, because we've been pretty cautious on our lending, the overall portfolio has seen improvement.
Yes. And then a lot of variables there. So hard to pinpoint for sure. But yes. And then in terms of kind of the strategy going forward, are you guys -- I mean, obviously, it's paying off, you guys are putting up strong credit results here, but are you kind of happy growing kind of the existing customer base being a little bit more cautious, call it, on on new consumers? Is that kind of the plan, at least for the medium near term, given what's going on macroeconomically?
Yes, that's right. So we're focused right now on the blocking and tackling and getting the fundamentals right of the operations and then taking a cautious approach to lending.
So we -- right now, we're a little looser than we were, say, in the March quarter, but we're still a lot tighter than we were at this point last year. So we may continue to kind of put some of those levers to increase growth a little bit, but I wouldn't expect any dramatic change in our growth trajectory in the near term.
[Operator Instructions] The next question will come from Guy Riegel with Ingalls & Snyder.
It's Guy here. Part of my questions were answered, previous person, analyst. But I was curious, can you speak to the competitive environment? And last one would be, are you still testing a credit card offering?
Great questions. Hey, this is Tobin Turner speaking. On the competitive standpoint, we, at a macro level, still feel very confident. We're pleased with our overall app flow. So we kind of like where we're positioned. We see some opportunities to grow when and as we see fit. So from a competitive standpoint, we feel pretty good.
On the credit card front, we have we're still kind of pilot testing where we are. We've got enough cards out there that we're kind of getting to see how people behave over time. We really are in just letting that initial portfolio bake. And we're probably at least a quarter or 2 away from trying to make a decision on how to scale that.
This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Calmes for any closing remarks.
Thank you for joining our second quarter earnings call, and thanks for your interest.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
World Acceptance Corporation — Q1 2027 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good morning and welcome to World Acceptance Corporation's First Quarter Fiscal 2027 Earnings Conference Call. This call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]
Before we begin, the corporation has requested make the following statement. The comments made during this conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that represent the corporation's expectations and beliefs concerning future events. Such forward-looking statements are about matters that are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties. Statements other than those of historical fact as well as those identified by the words anticipate, estimate, intend, plan, expect, believe, may, will, and should or any variation of the foregoing and similar expressions are forward-looking statements.
Additional information regarding forward-looking statements and any factors that could cause actual results or performance to differ from the expectations expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements are included in the paragraph discussing forward-looking statements in today's earnings press release and in the Risk Factors section of the corporation's most recent Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026 and subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the SEC from time to time the corporation does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements it makes.
At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, John Calmes, Chief Financial and Chief Strategy Officer.
Thank you. Good morning and thank you for joining our fiscal 2027 first quarter earnings call. Before turning to the numbers, I want to thank our team members across our company for the work they do every day serving our customers. The results we are reporting this quarter are a direct reflection of their execution and discipline. We are pleased with the first quarter results and more importantly believe we are well positioned for the remainder of fiscal 2027.
This quarter reflects steady progress against our core priorities. Growing the loan portfolio responsibly, improving credit quality, and maintaining a disciplined approach to expenses. We achieved adjusted earnings per share of $2.12 for the first quarter. Earnings benefited from a 4.8% increase in revenue, as well as a 13.4% decrease in provision expense. The revenue increase is due to continued year-over-year loan growth as well as a 91 base point increase in interest and insurance yields.
Importantly, our credit quality continued to improve as well. Our annualized net charge off rate decreased from 19.2% in the first quarter of last year to 18.2% in the current quarter. We also saw improvement in delinquency -- on both the front-end and back-end.
Most notably, front end delinquency decreased from 19.2% to 18.1%. These trends reinforce our confidence in the health of the portfolio and the strength of our underwriting. Our expenses outside of one-time costs related to the CEO transition, we saw modest increases in our G&A expense, and we expect to maintain this disciplined approach to expenses going forward.
At this time, Tobin Turner, our Chief Operating Officer, and I would like to open up to any questions you may have.
[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Kyle Joseph with Stephens.
2. Question Answer
Just wanted to get a sense for the kind of the timing in terms of the underwriting changes, when you guys tweaked them tighter and at what point, you know, you kind of undid those changes?
Great question. This is Tobin. We really tightened our portfolio, the whole credit box, really about six months ago. Kind of coinciding with the rise in gas prices. Thankfully, we've been pretty pleased with that's the way our portfolio has aged. Probably about a month ago, we started generally loosening a little bit, but I'd say we're still fairly conservative and with gas prices continuing to spike a little bit. I like where we are. We're more open than we were five months ago but we're still pretty conservative.
Got it. And then on the demand side, can you give us a sense for how things have trended? Call it year to date, you know, we had large tax refunds, but to your point, you know, a lot higher gas prices and just sort of any, you know, any changes in demand you've observed?
Demand has been, thankfully, pretty robust for us. The bookable apps we've seen have kind of decreased a little bit in conjunction with our tightening of the credit box. But overall, or systemically, we don't see a shrinking in demand. So we feel pretty comfortable with demand right now.
[Operator Instructions] This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to John Calmes for any closing remarks.
Thanks Drew, and thanks for joining our first corner earnings call. We appreciate your interest.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
World Acceptance Corporation — Q4 2026 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, and welcome to World Acceptance Corporation's Fourth Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. This call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] Before we begin, the corporation has requested that I make the following announcement.
The comments made during this conference call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that represent the corporation's expectations and beliefs concerning future events. Such forward-looking statements are about matters that are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties. Statements other than those of historical fact as well as those identified by the words anticipate, estimate, intend, plan, expect, believe, may, will and should or any variation of the foregoing and similar expressions are forward-looking statements. Additional information regarding forward-looking statements and any factors that could cause actual results or performance to differ from the expectations expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements are included in the paragraph discussing forward-looking statements in today's earnings press release and in the Risk Factors section of the corporation's most recent Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025, and subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the SEC from time to time.
The corporation does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements it makes.
At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Janet Matricciani, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer.
Thank you, Michael. Good morning, and welcome to our fourth quarter and full year 2026 earnings call. I rejoined the company on April 13, and I'm pleased to be leading the team as we strengthen and grow our company. And I look forward to speaking with you in more detail in the quarters ahead. But for today, I'll turn it over to our CFO, Johnny Calmes, to walk through the quarter and the full year highlights. Thank you, Johnny.
Thanks, Janet. We are pleased with the results of fourth quarter and more importantly, we feel we are positioned very well for fiscal 2027. We achieved earnings per share of $7.70 for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, including the impact of one of our senior executives retiring, which had an after-tax impact of approximately $0.25 per share. Total revenue for the quarter increased 7.4%, driven by an increase in loans outstanding and yields. We also had a fantastic tax preparation season, where we saw returns prepared increase 13%.
Interest fee and insurance income increased 5.4%, and we expect similar increases in the coming quarters. After a buildup in field personnel in the third fiscal quarter to address service gaps, we reduced headcount in the field by 5% in the fourth quarter. This will reduce personnel expense in the coming quarters relative to the third and fourth quarters of fiscal '26. We expect personnel expense to be between $47 million to $49 million in the first 3 quarters and slightly higher than that in the fourth quarter. We increased our loans outstanding by 4.4%, while also decreasing our delinquency in both rate and dollars. This should lead to higher revenues and lower charge-offs in the coming quarters. We also intend to rely less on new customers in the coming year, which should have a positive impact on credit metrics. Further, we repurchased an additional 37.8 million of shares during the quarter. This is in addition to shares previously repurchased during the fiscal year, equates to 16.5% of our outstanding shares at the beginning of the year. At this time, we would like to open it up to any questions you may have.
[Operator Instructions] And the first question for today comes from Kyle Joseph with Stephens.
2. Question Answer
Welcome back, Janet. Just wanted to start on everything that was going on macroeconomically. It sounds like you guys obviously had good growth of your tax revs, but just kind of want to talk through the impacts of the bigger tax refunds on loan demand and credit and then how much of that was offset in March by the increase in gas prices?
Sure. So Kyle, we actually have Tobin Turner, our Chief Operating Officer, here with us on the call, and he can speak to some of the impacts that we're seeing from gas prices or not seeing.
Yes. We're definitely, thank you, Kyle. We're watching our most recent vintages very, very closely. So far, we seem fairly pleased with their performance. we've kind of been watching our credit box around the margin pretty tightly. So at the present, high gas prices are definitely on our radar, but we're not seeing a significant impact in our most recent vintages, at least yet.
And as you can see, our front-end delinquency and back-end delinquency looks really strong and improvement over March of last year. So yes, certainly something we're watching, but there's no clear indications that it's having an impact so far.
Got it. And then, yes, nice to see another quarter of loan growth, but just remind us any leverage limitations you have there? How much growth can you actually do, obviously, balancing repurchasing shares as well?
Sure. Yes, there's no leverage limitations. But in general, the goal is to kind of grow in that mid-single-digit range kind of where we were this year, maybe a little higher.
[Operator Instructions]Seeing no additional questions, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ms. Matricciani for any closing remarks.
Yes. I'd just like to say thank you very much for your interest in our company, and we very much look forward to our path ahead.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
World Acceptance Corporation — Q3 2026 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, and welcome to World Acceptance Corporation's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. This call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] Before we begin, the corporation has requested that I make the following announcement. The comments made during this conference call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that represent the corporation's expectations and beliefs concerning future events.
Such forward-looking statements are about matters that are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, statements other than those of historical fact, as well as those identified by words anticipate, estimate, intend, plan, expect, believe, may, will and should or any variation of the foregoing and similar expressions are forward-looking statements.
Additional information regarding forward-looking statements and any factors that could cause actual results or performance to differ from the expectations expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements are included in the paragraph discussion. Forward-looking statements in today's earnings press release and in the Risk Factors section of the corporation's most recent Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025 and subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the SEC from time to time. The corporation does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements it makes.
At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Chad Prashad, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Good morning, and thank you for joining our fiscal 2026 Third Quarter Earnings Call. There are a few important aspects of the portfolio to cover in more detail. While we originated 16% more in new customer volume during the quarter, we actually ended the quarter with 25% more outstanding ledger in our active new customers than the same quarter of last year. And our new customers are again our riskiest customer segment. This 25% increase in the new customer outstanding portfolio required around an $8 million additional provision for this customer segment in the same quarter last year.
The third quarter had the highest new customers since the same quarter of calendar 2021. Already, early performance indicates that these continue to be good investments in line with expectations. Compared to the prior high volume mark of the third quarter of calendar 2021, the first pay defaults are already 19% lower, relatively speaking.
In addition, we continue to make credit box improvements on a regular basis. In some cases, those changes are due to credit performance in small credit and geographical pockets. But the majority of improvements in underwriting are to drive a faster return on the initial investment and increase long-term ROI with our most loyal customers. This is a long-term investment that will continue to improve both credit performance as well as customer retention, when combined, will continue to improve long-term yields.
As we noted, yields improved 84 basis points year-over-year, as income has also improved. We expect this trend to continue due to improved rates in a few states, continued discipline with credit limits and underwriting, improving customer retention as longer tenured customers are also lower risk for us and continued smart investments in our customer base and overall ledger.
Our customer base has grown substantially around 5.4% organically year-over-year. To put that in perspective, last year, we grew 2.2% year-over-year and declined in the 2 years prior to that. One of our largest growth years was in fiscal year 2022, where we experienced a 5.6% increase in our customer base organically.
As mentioned earlier, the first pay default rates on our new customers made during the third quarter of this year are already 19% lower, relatively speaking to new customers of that same year of fiscal 2022. Organic growth in ledger is 2.4% year-over-year compared to a decline of 2.4% last year.
Our average outstanding loan has declined around 2.5% in average balance year-over-year. That's due to the increased discipline around our underwriting and larger investments in new customers who are typically at lower balances. Again, this all combines to improve gross yields. Year-over-year earnings comparisons are complicated with the headwinds during this quarter of increased share-based comp expense, personnel expense as we have temporarily overstaffed to improve our branch team members, investments in new customers as well as our provision for loan losses. However, we remain committed to a long-term soundness and profitability of the portfolio and operations.
We're most excited about putting several years of shrinking the portfolio behind us and continuing to see these gross yields grow. The customer base continues to expand and customer retention and tenure continues to improve. As one of our largest investments, we continue to be focused on improving branch operations and personal management. This year, we've already repurchased nearly 600,000 shares reducing our outstanding shares by 11% in the first 9 months of the year.
We have over $60 million of remaining capacity for repurchases, which is approximately 9% of the outstanding shares as of yesterday's closing price, which will be a total of around 20% of outstanding shares this year.
As a mid-quarter update, we're very early in our tax filing season, and we've already seen substantial improvement year-over-year in both the volume of filings as well as the revenue. While the current ice storm has affected approximately 10 of our states so far this week by some portion of their branches being closed, we are optimistic and continue to be optimistic that we'll experience an increase in tax filing volume and revenue throughout this quarter.
I'd also like to take a moment to thank Clint Dyer for his incredible contribution to the company over the last 30 years and to celebrate his upcoming retirement. Clint has added tremendous value to our branch leadership over the decades and has produced many of our key leaders under his mentorship. We wish him the best in his upcoming adventures.
I'm also grateful to our branch leadership under Clint for their commitment to world embracing the new style that Tobin Turner has brought in and stepping in to lead branch operations during the transition. Tobin brings his deep knowledge of analytics and marketing as well as retail operations to his approach of the management structure. We are excited about the current portfolio in this trajectory, which again includes substantial customer base expansion, strong loan growth, improved loan approval rates while maintaining credit quality, stable and improving delinquency, lower cost of acquisitions and improving yields as well as declining share count. All of which ultimately returns value to our shareholders through strong earnings per share growth.
At this time, Johnny Calmes our Chief Financial and Strategy Officer, and I would like to open up to any questions you have.
[Operator Instructions] And the first question today will come from Kyle Joseph with Stephens.
2. Question Answer
I totally get the dynamics of the portfolio growth and particularly related to new consumers. But just looking for an update on kind of the health of the underlying consumer aside from that. Obviously, there were concerns in the fall, particularly related to the auto segment, but just any trends you've kind of seen in the consumer since then? And then how you're thinking about the outlook in the tax refund season with all the headlines of it that the consumers expect to get larger tax refunds?
Yes. I would say from the overall consumer perspective, we haven't seen a degradation in collections or in credit quality. There has been, I would say, a slight increase in demand. There's also been a significant decrease in our cost of acquisition for our higher credit quality new customers, which may be related to that, may not -- not really super sure on that one. But we haven't seen a significant change in our consumer behavior, whether it's due to tariffs or other expenses.
On the tax filing side, we are seeing definitely an increased demand in taxes and tax filings. We are expecting to see larger returns of larger refunds this year. A lot of that is probably due to some of the tax law changes last year that would affect our customer base in particular. We have also changed marketing sort of last minute early in January, late December to really attract customers who are going to be in some of those segments, customers who are either paid but through tips.
And so there's a might be experiencing refunds this season or other sort of changes in the tax code from last year. But on the tax filing side, we do remain optimistic this will be a very strong tax year for us.
Got it. And then yes, just shifting to G&A, the growth there, I get the sense it is largely incentive comp and the majority of that was stock-based comp. I think a couple of calls ago, you gave us kind of a little bit of a schedule in terms of how long it would be elevated. Can you just walk us through if there's any sort of -- if it should be elevated in the coming quarters or how you would expect the personnel line item to trend coming first?
Yes. So you should start to see that incentive line come down starting with Q4. There was a share-based comp grant last December that has been fully expensed at this point. And there will be another sort of cliff in December of next year. And -- but also the sort of the field level incentives could sort of tighten a little bit as we move forward as well.
So I do expect to see some decent decreases in that incentive comp expense going forward.
[Operator Instructions] The next question will come from Guy Riegel with Ingalls & Snyder.
Question in the report -- earnings report, you had talked about an increase in head count in the field level offices, branch offices. And then -- and you spoke about deciding to have a reduction in the headcount going forward of 3% to 5%. Why the increase? And then why the decision to decrease?
Yes. Great question. So first, the decision to increase was building up a quality team in anticipation of some reduction in some underperforming team members and also some underperforming parts of the company.
So really, it's building up in advance of turnover. We've done it across, I would say, roughly 80% of the company and about 50% of that was done very quickly. There's still sort of a lagging period where in anticipation of turnover, some underperforming team members we're holding on to some of our unperforming team members a little longer than anticipated as we're building up the base there, if that makes sense.
So really, it's just building up in anticipation of that turnover. So we should expect to see the reduction pretty quickly within this quarter.
I see. And the underperformers was -- as it related to their ability not to collect or just any color on that?
Yes. It's related to a number of things. One of those is their ability not to collect. I think just overall performance in general, engagement, that's sort of thing in the current operating environment.
Okay. And one last question. I don't know if you have -- you don't have a crystal ball, but the headlines related to a 10% cap on credit cards. Was any of that related to underwriting -- I mean you guys underwrite your -- the loans you make. Was there any discussion about your area?
So as far as I know, there's been no discussions how that would relate to installment loans. But I would imagine with a 10% rate cap with the current cost of capital in the environment, there will be a severe reduction in access to credit cards.
My rough estimate would be somewhere around the 750 to 780 credit score. Anyone who's below that would probably see a severe reduction in their access to credit. I think it would definitely drive up demand for our product or for installment loans in general. But aside from that, in our own credit card portfolio currently is still very small. I believe we currently have expanded with active customers, and I believe it's 46 states. But again, we're still very small in general, just a few million dollars outstanding. And so we can pivot very quickly on that end, if needed, but I don't think for now, there's really any serious implications negatively for our major portfolio.
This will conclude our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Prashad for any closing remarks.
Yes. Thank you for joining our third quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call, and this concludes the earnings call. Thank you.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
World Acceptance Corporation — Q2 2026 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, and welcome to World Acceptance Corporation's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. This call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions].
Before we begin, the corporation has requested that I make the following announcement. The comments made during this conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that represent the corporation's expectations and beliefs concerning future events.
Such forward-looking statements are about matters that are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties. Statements other than those of historical fact as well as those identified by the words anticipate, estimate, intend, plan, expect, believe, may, will and should or any variation of the foregoing insular expressions are forward-looking statements.
Additional information regarding forward-looking statements and any factors that could cause actual results or performance to differ from the expectations expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements are included in the paragraph discussing forward-looking statements in today's earnings press release and in the Risk Factors section of the corporation's most recent Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025, and subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the SEC from time to time. The corporation does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements it makes.
At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Chad Prashad, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Good morning, and thank you for joining our fiscal '26 second quarter earnings call. There are a lot of great things to report in the portfolio. But before I get into those, I want to spend some time discussing a few unusual and one-off events that impacted this quarter, and then we'll open up to any questions you have.
First, we had a $3.7 million onetime expense from the early redemption of our bonds. This is approximately a $0.57 earnings per share impact after tax within the quarter. Second, even though we discontinued and disposed of our Mexico operation years ago, we had a $1.3 million discrete tax-related expense this quarter. There are no additional items related to our prior Mexico operations that we expect to impact any future business or financials. But this $1.3 million expense represents approximately $0.26 per share after tax this quarter.
We had the most new customer growth in the last 4 years this quarter, and this growth primarily in new customers, which are our riskiest customer segment, resulted in a new customer portfolio at the end of Q2 that is 35% larger year-over-year. This marginal increase in provision is solely due to the increased new customer base is approximately $5 million, solely due to new customers in the portfolio at the end of the second quarter. This represents approximately $0.78 per share after tax. These 3 unusual events in this quarter have a total impact of around $1.61 per share after tax on the quarter.
Additionally, our long-term incentive comp changes make for year-over-year comparisons rather difficult. Last year, we reversed around $18.1 million in long-term comp from a prior plan, which benefited that quarter. Conversely, this quarter, we expensed around $5.8 million of long-term comp plan, which is about a $23.9 million net increase in our long-term incentive comp expenses when you're comparing year-over-year quarters.
As you think about future quarters, the long-term incentive expense is front-loaded and will remain around $5.8 million for the third quarter before reducing by around $2 million in the fourth quarter and the following 2 quarters before reducing further.
All right. That covers the major one-off and unique impacts within the second quarter. Now turning to the portfolio. Our new customer origination volume is up around 40% year-over-year at the end of the second quarter. Year-to-date, our new customer origination volume is up 35% and back to pre-COVID levels, actually in line with the first half of both fiscal year 2019 and 2020. This is a remarkable feat given the last few years of shrinking reduced growth.
Additionally, the first pay default rate, slow file or delinquency rate of these new originations are in line with our fiscal 2019 and 2020, new bar originations. We're very grateful for all of the hard work by so many folks within our teams and very pleased with these results. They are able to return to healthy growth with good credit quality, maintain low first payment default rates while also increasing our portfolio yield by over 130 basis points year-over-year.
When we include our returning former customers and look at all non-refinance originations, originations increased 15% year-over-year in the second quarter, making it the highest volume second quarter on record with the exception of fiscal year 2020 -- 2022.
Year-to-date, the first half of the fiscal year had 14% higher loan volume than last year. Again, the highest volume on record for the first half of the fiscal year with the exception of fiscal year 2022. This is especially important for our portfolio of health as our repeat customers are lower credit risk, have a lower cost of acquisition and servicing and help with overall retention, yield and lower delinquency. All of this has helped us grow the portfolio nominally by 5.5% more this year relative to last year. We ended the second quarter with our portfolio up 1.5% year-over-year, compared to a starting position of being down 4% at beginning of the year on April 1 year-over-year.
Other great improvements to our capital position include, as we previously mentioned, this quarter, we repurchased and canceled the remaining $170 million of our bonds and stood up a $175 million warehouse facility. Also in the quarter, we completed a new credit agreement, increasing commitments to $640 million and allowing for stock repurchases of up to 100% of net income which is an increase from 50% of net income in our prior agreement, and an additional $100 million of upfront repurchase allowance in addition to the 100% of net income, which begins January 1, 2025.
For that repurchase potential, we've already repurchased 9.1% of our shares so far year-to-date, which is around $80 million, with additional capacity repurchased another $77 million this year, or approximately 8.6% of outstanding shares at yesterday's price for a total potential repurchase of around 17.7% of outstanding shares, again at yesterday's share price.
We're excited about the current portfolio and this trajectory, which includes substantial customer base expansion, strong loan growth, improved loan approval rates while maintaining credit quality, stable and improving delinquency, lower cost of acquisition, improving yields, declining share count and ultimately returning enhanced value to our shareholders through strong EPS growth.
At this time, Johnny Calmes, our Chief Financial and Strategy Officer, and I would like to open up to any questions you may have.
[Operator Instruction]. And your first question comes from John Rowan with Janney.
2. Question Answer
My apologies, the phone broke up -- my phone broke up a little bit when you were talking about the 3 discrete items, I got into $0.26 from Mexico, but what were the other 2 to get to the $1.61?
Yes. So we had $0.26 in Mexico. We had $0.57 due to the $3.7 million early redemption of our bonds and approximately 78% -- or $0.78 EPS impact from around right at $5 million increase in our provision solely due to more new customer growth this second quarter than last second quarter.
Okay. So I just want to make sure I understand a little bit more about the -- some of your operating expenses going forward. So you had $25 million, an increase of $25.4 million in personnel expense because of the grants, right? But I'm assuming that that's up $25 million versus the $18.5 million reversal last year. So is it safe to assume that there's like $6.9 million, the net difference of that in personnel expense this year -- this quarter, going down to $5.8 million next quarter and then down to $3.8 million a quarter, for that $1.8 million a quarter after that. Does that sound correct?
Yes. Sounds good.
Okay. And then kind of 1 last housekeeping question. So obviously, you had a GAAP loss for the quarter. I'm assuming the diluted share count is just the basic share count. Can you tell me what the -- but the period end diluted share count was? Or the period end share count and then what the dilution is, we can maybe get an idea of what the diluted share count is with positive earnings?
Yes. So the quarter ending share count is up $4.8 million. And the dilution usually runs in the 100,000, 200,000 shares, depending on obviously where the share prices and other factors.
Your next question comes from Kyle Joseph with Stephens. Go ahead.
Just want to get your sense for the health of the underlying consumer and kind of any changes since the last time we talked. Obviously, there's been a lot of headlines, primarily in the auto space and concerns about the consumer. And I recognize you guys have some portfolio mix shift going on. But just stepping back and talking about the health of the underlying consumer and how that's impacting both demand and credit?
Yes, it's a great question. So we do track how our consumer is performing on other loans. And yes, we have seen the same sort of weakness that you're reading about the papers, especially in the auto loans. However, for us, we haven't seen any major signs of weakness. We have proactively tightened our credit box for new customers multiple times so far this fiscal year, very marginal tightening typically on the very low end. Nothing really substantial in terms of overall approval volumes. But in terms of performance, we haven't seen anything major that would impact the portfolio today.
Got it. And then you guys talked about originations growth and new customers and just kind of want to get an update on marketing efforts that have been driving that and where you guys have been having success in kind of an update on the competitive environment as well.
Yes. So on the marketing side, we've done a number of things that have, I think, been very successful. We are very much a test-and-learn sort of environment. We have brought some modeling in-house on the -- for solicitation models, propensity to respond and couple those with overall performance expectations. We have a couple of very successful tests this past quarter that have dramatically reduced our cost of acquisition for pre-approval campaigns, primarily new customers. This fiscal year, we have made some substantial changes to the way that we market to our former customers in order to increase our repeat business. We've seen substantial reductions in overall cost of acquisition here as well.
Now with that being said, we haven't anticipated returning back to the $20 million-plus sort of marketing budget that we used to have in marketing. We're, for now, looking to aim for modest growth, somewhere in the mid to low single digits on the portfolio side, which is mid to high single digits on the customer base side.
So all that is kind of tailwinds in terms of growth, but we're still maintaining sort of smaller budgets on the marketing front. We are seeing increased demand and sort of increased application volume from customers in general. So maybe that's also helping to fuel our lower cost of acquisition.
Got it. Very helpful. Thanks for taking my questions.
There are no further questions at this time. This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Prashad for any closing remarks.
In closing, I want to thank our absolutely amazing team across the country as well as those here in Greenville. I'm very grateful for their commitment to their customers and to our team members every day. They are helping our customers to establish and rebuild credit while meeting their immediate financial needs.
Thank you for taking time to join us today. This concludes the second quarter earnings call for World Acceptance Corporation.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
Financial data from World Acceptance Corporation
Revenue
Revenue is the sum of all sales generated by a company, e.g. for its products or services.
Revenue (TTM) metric explainedDirect Costs
Direct costs are the costs incurred directly in connection with the manufacture of the product or service.
Gross Profit
Gross Profit indicates how much of the revenue remains in the company after deducting direct production costs. If the percentage share of sales is calculated, this is referred to as the gross margin.
Gross Profit metric explainedSelling and Administrative Expenses
Selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) include all expenses for marketing and sales as well as the general administration of the company.
Research and Development Expense
Research and development costs (R&D) provide information on how much the company invests in the research and development of its products. The costs are particularly interesting as a percentage of revenue and in comparison to direct competitors.
EBITDA
EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) is the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The EBITDA margin is calculated as a percentage of sales.
Depreciation and Amortization
Depreciation represents reductions in the value of the company's assets (e.g. due to wear and tear on machinery).
EBIT (Operating Income)
EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes) is the company's profit before interest and taxes, also known as the operating income. The EBIT Margin is calculated as a percentage of sales at
.
Net Profit
Net Profit represents the profit or loss after deduction of all costs.
Net Profit metric explainedStocksGuide Premium
| Jun '26 |
+/-
%
|
||
| Revenue | 592 592 |
4%
4%
100%
|
|
| - Direct Costs | 48 48 |
11%
11%
8%
|
|
| Gross Profit | 544 544 |
4%
4%
92%
|
|
| - Selling and Administrative Expenses | 305 305 |
24%
24%
51%
|
|
| - Research and Development Expense | - - |
-
-
|
|
| EBITDA | 54 54 |
48%
48%
9%
|
|
| - Depreciation and Amortization | 3.13 3.13 |
14%
14%
1%
|
|
| EBIT (Operating Income) EBIT | 51 51 |
49%
49%
9%
|
|
| Net Profit | 39 39 |
52%
52%
7%
|
|
In millions USD.
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World Acceptance Corporation Stock News
Company Profile
World Acceptance Corp. engages in the small-loan consumer finance business. It offers short-term small instalment, medium-term larger loans, related credit insurance, ancillary products and services to individuals. The company also offers income tax return preparation services to customers. It also markets computer software and related services to financial services companies through its subsidiary ParaData Financial Systems. World Acceptance was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Greenville, SC.
StocksGuide Premium
| Head office | United States |
| CEO | Mr. Prashad |
| Employees | 2,838 |
| Founded | 1962 |
| Website | www.loansbyworld.com |
