Business
World Acceptance Corporation Reports Fiscal 2020 Third Quarter Results
GREENVILLE, S.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- World Acceptance Corporation (NASDAQ: WRLD) today reported financial results for its third fiscal quarter and nine months
About this update from World Acceptance Corporation
[{"type":"text","content":" GREENVILLE, S.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nWorld Acceptance Corporation (NASDAQ: WRLD) today reported financial results for its third fiscal quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2019.\n\n\nPortfolio results\n\n\nWe are pleased with the ongoing growth in our portfolio and, in particular, the significant growth in new customers. While investments in new customers typically have a negative effect on current profits, we continue to expect these pools of new customers to have a positive impact on long-term profitability and be an important part of achieving our long-term EPS target of $25.30 by the end of Fiscal 2025.\n\n\nAs previously disclosed, we sold our Mexico operations effective July 1, 2018. As a result of the sale, we have classified the Mexico business as discontinued operations, and the US business as continuing operations on the statements of operations for the applicable period.\n\n\nGross loans outstanding in the US, which are reported as continuing operations, increased to $1.37 billion as of December 31, 2019, a 9.0% increase from the $1.26 billion of gross loans outstanding as of December 31, 2018. This is compared to a 11.7% increase for the comparable period ended December 31, 2018. Excluding the direct impact of acquisitions for each period, gross loans increased 11.3% year-over-year as of December 31, 2019, compared to 9.3% for the comparable period ended December 31, 2018.\n\n\nOur customer base increased by 7.2% year-over-year as of December 31, 2019, compared to 9.6% growth for the twelve months ended December 31, 2018. Excluding the direct impact of acquisitions, the customer base increased 8.9% year-over-year as of December 31, 2019, compared to 6.5% for the comparable period ended December 31, 2018. During the quarter ended December 31, 2019, the number of unique borrowers in the portfolio increased by 4.3% compared to an increase of 8.8% during the quarter ended December 31, 2018. Excluding the direct impact of acquisitions, the customer base increased 8.1% during the third quarter of fiscal 2020 compared to 6.5% during the same quarter fiscal 2019.\n\n\nAs of December 31, 2019, we had 1,240 branches open. For branches open for both years, same store gross loans increased 8.2% in the twelve months ended December 31, 2019 compared to a 10.8% increase for the same period ended December 31, 2018. For branch...