Bentonville-based America’s Car-Mart reported net income of $8.8 million for its fiscal fourth quarter, down from $9.6 million for the corresponding period last year, but it met analysts’ estimates on a per-share basis.
According to a release after market close Thursday and a Friday morning conference call, the buy-here pay-here used-car dealer reported profit of 92 cents per share for the quarter that ended April 30, down from 97 cents per share a year earlier.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters predicted an average of 92 cents a share on revenue of $119.2 million.
The company booked $125.5 million in revenue for the quarter, up 11 percent from $113.5 million a year earlier. Sales in stores open at least a year increased 5.3 percent for the quarter and the company added four locations.
Car-Mart shares were up 1 percent to close at $46.50 in trading Friday on the Nasdaq. Shares have traded as low as $35.81 and as high as $50.59 over the past year.
During the conference call, Hank Henderson, president and chief executive officer, said in the face of increased competition the company is becoming more aggressive about retaining its customers.
He said that company wide Car-Mart is retaining about a third of its customers, but the rate is closer to 50 percent at more established stores.
“We don’t want to lose good, proven customers,” Henderson said.
Chief Financial Officer Jeff Williams said the company will retain those customers through lower down payments and slightly longer loan terms. He said the current average length of a loan is 29.3 months, up from 28.1 months a year earlier.
Unit sales were 10,767, up 10 percent from 9,789 for the fourth quarter of 2011. Average price was up 1.8 percent to $9,963 compared with the corresponding period last year.
For the year, Car-Mart saw net income of $32.1 million, or $3.36 per share, up from $3.24 cents a share for 2011. Revenue was $465 million, up 8 percent from $430 million the previous year.
Same store growth was up 3.3 percent when compared to 2011.
The company sold 40,737 units in 2012, and 8 percent increase from 37,722 in 2011. The vehicles sold for an average of $9,721 in 2012. The company opened 10 lots in 2012 and plans to open 12 lots in 2013.
Car-Mart did not repurchase any company stock in the fourth quarter, but for the year bought 2.9 million shares valued at about $88 million or about 25 percent of the company.
Henderson said the company is seeing gains from its Manager-in-Training Program and will roll out its retooled proprietary operations software in June, with all its operations upgraded by October, speeding up the sales process.
Business, Pages 29 on 05/25/2013