America’s Car-Mart reports strong fourth quarter | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

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America’s Car-Mart posted strong fourth quarter earnings on improved profits and sales with the company saying Thursday that its strategy of improving operations is paying off.

President and CEO Doug Campbell said during a conference call that the company’s fiscal 2025 actions positioning Car-Mart for growth, noting its loan origination system improvements and the build up of its leadership team, were key factors in the company’s success.

Campbell said Car-Mart continues to improve its collections infrastructure adding it’s rolled out a new “Pay Your Way” program that allows for far more payment options for customers. The pilot program is live and expected to be available to customers at all Car-Mart locations by the end of the first quarter.

“Many of our customers operate outside of the traditional banking system,” Campbell said. “They often are underbanked, lacking consistent access to a checking account, a credit card, or even a stable banking relationship. For years, we supported them through in person payments at our stores or with basic debit and ACH channels.”

He said the company has been examining a risk-based pricing model and it is now being employed in all dealerships with the exception of acquisition dealerships.

“Altogether, we see this evolution in underwriting and pricing as a major enabler of smarter growth, better risk adjusted returns, and ultimately, a more resilient business model,” Campbell said.

During the meeting, Campbell introduced Jonathan Collins, Car-Mart’s new chief financial officer who’s been on the job about a month and thanked Vickie Judy, America’s Car-Mart’s longtime chief financial officer who shifted roles to become the company’s chief accounting officer. She has been with the company 15 years, with half of those in the CFO chair.

Collins served as CFO for Walmart’s Africa retail arm, overseeing 300 stores in eight countries. He also held several other financial roles in the mega-retailer in the United States, Canada, India and South Africa. He had extensive financial experience before joining Walmart.

Car-Mart shares fell in Thursday trading closing at $50, down $7.74 or 13%. Shares have traded as low as $36.40 and as high as $72.26 over the past year.

The Rogers-based buy-here, pay-here used car dealer reported net income of $10.6 million, or $1.26 per share for the period ended April 30 compared with $416,000, or 6 cents a share for the same quarter a year ago. The company handily bested a consensus estimate of four analysts that pegged earnings of 87 cents per share.

For the fiscal year 2025, Car-Mart posed earnings of $17.9 million, or $2.33 per share, compared with a loss of $31.4 million, or $4.92 per share a year ago.

Revenue for the fourth quarter was $370.2 million, up 1.5% from $364.7 million a year ago. A consensus of three analysts has expected revenue of $343.5 million for the fourth quarter. In fiscal year 2025 Car-Mart saw revenue of $1.4 billion, down 0.2% when compared to a year ago.

“Over the coming year, we will be evaluating ways to balance our vehicle mix to the potential demand driven by our risk based pricing,” Jamie Fisher, chief operating officer said during the call.

Net charge-offs as a percentage of average finance receivables for the fourth quarter improved to 6.9% compared with 7.3% during the quarter a year ago. Charge-offs are an indication of debt that is unlikely to be collected. For fiscal 2025, net charge-offs were also better, at 25.9% compared with 27.2% for the year earlier.

Car-Mart said it sold 15,649 vehicles in the fourth quarter, up 2.6% from 15,251 for the year ago quarter. Average retail price for vehicles sold in the fourth quarter stood at $19,049, down 1.1% from $19,256. Gross profit per unit sold was $7,209, up 1.1% from $7,132.

For the year, Car-Mart sold 57,022 vehicles, down 1.7% from 57,989 for fiscal 2024. Average retail price for vehicles sold in fiscal 2025 was $19,398, up 1.5% from $19,113 for the previous year. Gross profit for unit sold for the last 12 months was $7,368, up 6.2% from $6,937 for fiscal 2024.

Car-Mart has more than 150 dealership locations in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

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