World Acceptance (NASDAQ:WRLD) reported fourth-quarter financial results on Thursday. The transcript from the company's fourth-quarter earnings call has been provided below.

This transcript is brought to you by Benzinga APIs. For real-time access to our entire catalog, please visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/ for a consultation.

View the webcast at https://event.choruscall.com/mediaframe/webcast.html?webcastid=GzwQl9KE

Summary

World Acceptance reported an earnings per share of $7.70 for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, with a notable after-tax impact from a senior executive retirement.

Total revenue increased by 7.4%, driven by higher loans outstanding and yields, and a strong tax preparation season with a 13% increase in returns prepared.

Loan growth was 4.4%, coupled with reduced delinquency rates, which is expected to lead to higher revenues and lower charge-offs in future quarters.

The company reduced field personnel by 5% to address service gaps, aiming to lower personnel expenses in upcoming quarters.

Strategic initiatives include relying less on new customers to improve credit metrics and repurchasing $37.8 million in shares, totaling a 16.5% reduction in outstanding shares for the fiscal year.

Management is monitoring the impact of high gas prices on loan demand and credit, but has not observed significant effects yet.

The company plans to maintain mid-single-digit loan growth and has no leverage limitations, balancing this with share repurchases.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Good morning and welcome to World Acceptance Corporation's fourth quarter 2026 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 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 Matriciani, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer.

Janet Matriciani (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 Jonny Carmes to walk through the quarter and the full year highlights. Thank you, Jonny.

Jonny Carmes (Chief Financial Officer)

We are pleased with the results of the 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 to $49 million in the first three 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 freight 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 worth 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

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. And the first question for today comes from Kyle Joseph with Stevens. Please go ahead.

Kyle Joseph

Hey, good morning. Welcome back, Janet, and thanks for taking my questions. Just wanted to start on everything that was going on. Macroeconomically, it sounds like you guys obviously had good growth of your tax revenues, 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? Thanks.

Tobin Turner (Chief Operating Officer)

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 seen. Yeah, we're definitely seeing some impacts. 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, 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. As you can see, our front end delinquency and back end delinquency looks really strong and improvement over March of last year. So, yeah, certainly something we're watching, but there's no clear indications that it's having an impact so far.

Kyle Joseph

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. Thanks.

Jonny Carmes (Chief Financial Officer)

Sure. Yeah, there's no leverage limitations but the 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.

Kyle Joseph

Great. That's it for me. Thanks for taking my questions.

OPERATOR

Again. If you have a question, please press star then one. Seeing no additional questions, this concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ms. Matriciani for any closing remarks.

Janet Matriciani (Interim President and Chief Executive Officer)

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.

Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.