BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Along with opening the 104th rooftop in its network, America's Car-Mart posted a mix of quarter-over-quarter gains as well as improvements through nine months of its fiscal year in a variety of balance sheet segments, including net income, revenue and retail units sales.

Looking first at just the most recent quarter, Car-Mart noted that net income edged slightly lower to 52 cents per diluted share, including a 3-cents-per-diluted-share charge for early pay off of debt. In the prior-year quarter, the net-income level came in at 53 cents per diluted share.

However, the company enjoyed a 10.5-percent jump in revenue during the third quarter, climbing from $83.8 million to $92.6 million. Management indicated the year-over-year movement came thanks to same store revenue growth of 5.3 percent.

Meanwhile, officials mentioned third-quarter retail unit sales increased 5.6 percent to 8,266 units from 7,824 units.

Car-Mart indicated its provision for credit losses moved up slightly higher in the third quarter than it was at the same time in the previous fiscal year. The provision ticked up to 21.9 percent of sales versus 21.7 percent for the prior-year period.

Management also discovered strong cash flows coming in the third quarter supported the significant increase in revenues as well as a $4.8-million increase in finance receivables, $1.5 million in capital expenditures, $3.4 million in income tax payments and $5.5 million in common stock repurchases with only a $3.7-million increase in debt.

As of the end of the third quarter, Car-Mart place its debt to equity ratio at 30.2 percent while its and debt to finance receivables ratio settled at 19.5 percent.

While the company's active customer base now stands at almost 50,000, its allowance for credit losses remained unchanged in the third quarter at 22 percent of finance receivables.

Moving over to a discussion about how Car-Mart did through nine months of its current fiscal year, officials calculated that net income moved up to $1.77 per diluted share, including a 3-cent-per-diluted-share charge for early pay off of debt. At this juncture in its previous fiscal year, the net income amount was $1.65 per diluted share.

As the active customer base climbed by 5 percent, Car-Mart's revenue is 10.3 percent higher year-over-year with same store revenue expanding by 6.5 percent.

Through nine months, the company enjoyed a retail sales uptick of 5 percent while also increasing its provision for credit losses to 21.4 percent, up from 20.5 percent during the year-ago time frame.

Like during the most recent quarter, Car-Mart indicated that its strong cash flows through nine months came through a combination of finance receivables growth of $20.8 million, capital expenditures of $3.7 million, $16.5 million in common stock repurchases with only a $16.2 million increase in debt.

"Our solid top line growth continues and would have been even stronger during the quarter absent the negative effects from the timing of income tax refund money in our markets," explained William Henderson, president and chief executive officer of America's Car-Mart.

"Had the timing of refunds been the same as prior years, we feel that we would have seen much higher sales volumes during the third quarter," Henderson continued. "The delay is expected to push out some sales into our fourth quarter. Based on sales levels thus far in February this appears in fact to be the case.

"Also, efforts to improve our deal structuring may have cost us a few sales during the quarter but the quality of the deals should be better," Henderson went on to say. "As expected, our credit losses have come back down sequentially and are basically flat with the third quarter of last year. Our commitment to helping our customers succeed has always been a cornerstone of our success and this will not change as we move forward. The benefits of working with our customers are showing up in recent credit trends."

New Rooftop in Tennessee

Along with its financial statement, Car-Mart announced that it brought its dealership network total up to 104 with the opening of a store in Columbia, Tenn.

Henderson mentioned that Car-Mart now has added seven stores so far during the company's 2011 fiscal year.

"Our new stores are performing very nicely and will provide a solid foundation for future top line growth," Henderson stated.

"We have added seven locations so far in fiscal 2011 and we have several more in the works that we intend to have in operation by the end of the fiscal year," he highlighted.

"The contributions of these new locations will be an important factor in keeping us on our projected growth targets. We are excited about our future and the tremendous opportunities in front of us to move into new markets and continue to serve existing markets the Car-Mart way," Henderson went on to say.

Additional Commentary about Company Balance Sheet

Car-Mart chief financial officer Jeff Williams elaborated on Henderson's points, first by saying, "Overall, we are pleased with our results and we will continue to focus on lot level productivity in an effort to leverage our cost structure.

"Our significant infrastructure investments over the last few years will allow us to support higher sales and loan volumes as we grow into the future," Williamson continued. "As a result of these investments, our cost structure has become more fixed in nature. As Hank indicated, the delay in timing of tax refunds this spring is expected to have the effect of moving some sales from the third quarter out into our fourth quarter. We did experience a negative impact on both our gross margin percentage and expense leveraging as a result of this shift."

Williams also called Car-Mart's balance sheet "very healthy" while the company's excess availability under a revolving credit facility was $35 million at the end of the quarter.

"We will continue to focus on cash returns by ensuring that our customers have equity in their vehicles throughout the term of their contracts," Williams offered. "We are expecting strong collections in the coming months based on the timing of tax refunds together with benefits from recent operational and software enhancements."

In other details, Car-Mart mentioned that it repurchased 205,884 shares, or 1.9 percent, of its common stock during the third quarter and 1,123,646 shares, or approximately 10 percent since February of last year.

"Obviously, we believe in the long-term value of our company and we expect to continue to invest in the repurchase program," Williams declared. "Our debt to equity ratio of 30.2 percent and our debt to finance receivables ratio of 19.5 percent continue to be strong.

"The ratios are even more impressive when considering the fact that we have repurchased almost $28 million of common stock and added approximately $20 million in finance receivables since Feb. 1, 2010," he added.