America’s Car-Mart of Rogers (Nasdaq: CRMT) reported Thursday first-quarter revenue for fiscal 2026 of $341.3 million, down 1.9% from $347.8 million a year ago.
The buy-here, pay-here auto dealer reported a loss in income of $5.7 million, down from a loss of $964,000 in the same quarter a year ago. Earnings per share was a loss of 69 cents, down from a loss of 15 cents.
The higher loss can be partly attributed to a jump in expenses, specifically provisions for credit losses and general costs.
“Within the current market environment, we are prudently managing sales to balance affordability, profit margins and portfolio quality,” America’s Car-Mart CEO Doug Campbell said in the earnings release.
“During the quarter wholesale prices rose resulting in each unit of inventory consuming more of our borrowing capacity, which places some limits on how much inventory we can carry,” he continued. “We are actively working to improve these capacity constraints to better serve the customer demand we are experiencing.”
America’s Car-Mart reported 13,568 vehicles sold in the quarter across its 154 locations; down from 14,391 a year ago.
The average vehicle sales price was $19,564, up from $19,286, and same-store revenue growth was a negative 4.7%, an improvement from negative 8.6% in the first quarter of 2025.
Campbell said the company recently launched its loan origination system, LOS V2, which is designed to improve its ability to assess risks and improve pricing formats. The functionality is now live across the company’s entire footprint, excluding acquisitions.
America’s Car-Mart reported 104,691 active customers, up from 103,231 a year ago.
“Our strategic investments are delivering measurable results,” Campbell said in the release. “From a consumer demand standpoint, application volume was up over 10%.”
Additionally, the company has started to see the “rapid adoption” of new functionality within Pay Your Way, its upgraded consumer-facing collections platform, according to Campbell.
“Since the upgrade of Pay Your Way in late June 2025, we have driven a shift from customers paying in-store to paying online, which improves customer convenience and builds the foundation for more consistent payment behavior,” he said in the release.
Shares of the company fell nearly 7% Thursday morning to $37.87. Year-to-date, shares were down 28.8%.
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