World Acceptance Corporation

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 21 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 31st, 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.

Thank you, Michael. Good morning. and welcome to our fourth quarter and full year 2026 earnings call. I rejoined the company on April the 13th, 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 Karmes, 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 25 cents 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 but we saw returns repaired increased 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% 49 million in the first three quarters and slightly higher than that in the fourth quarter we increased our loans outstanding by 4.4 percent 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 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. Now this time, we would like to open it up to any questions you may have.