Hank Henderson
America’s Car-Mart Inc. of Bentonville reported income of $11.6 million in fiscal year 2016, a nearly 61 percent drop from the $29.5 million it reported in 2015.
Car-Mart said diluted earnings per share were $1.33, down from $3.25 in 2015. Revenue was up 7 percent, rising from $530.3 million to $567.9 million.
For the fourth quarter, revenue was up to $154.7 million, from $137.6 million in the same quarter a year ago, while income dropped 53 percent from $7.3 million to $3.4 million. Quarterly earnings per share were 40 cents, down from 81 cents.
The company closed four stores in the fourth quarter, including one in Trumann, and ended the fiscal year with 143 stores in operation. Total units sold in the fiscal year dropped from 46,760 to 46,483, although sales in the fourth quarter rose from 11,699 to 12,345.
“While the operating environment continues to be challenging, we are doing a lot of things right and we are excited about the direction we are headed with the business,” CEO Hank Henderson said. “Specifically, we saw improvement with our sales volume productivity during the quarter driven by solid results for our older dealerships. We believe that the competitive environment on the lending side during the fourth quarter was particularly intense this year during income tax refund season as competitors even more aggressively targeted our customers to maintain their volumes in an increasingly difficult environment.”
Sign up for Daily E-news
