America's Car-Mart 1Q profit jumps on strong sales

Auto retailer America's Car-Mart Inc. said Thursday its fiscal first-quarter profit more than doubled on a steep increase in same-store sales and efficiency improvements.

For the quarter ended July 31, America's Car-Mart earned $5.3 million, or 45 cents per share, compared with $2.1 million, or 18 cents per share, for the same quarter in 2007.

Revenue jumped 29 percent to $75.7 million from $58.7 million in the year-ago period.

The results beat Wall Street predictions. On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a profit of 38 cents per share on $73.8 million in revenue.

Retail unit sales grew 26 percent to 7,353 vehicles from 5,847 in the prior-year period.

Same-store sales _ or sales at stores open at least a year _ rose 28.5 percent. Same-store sales is an important indicator of retail performance because it measures sales at existing stores rather than newly opened ones.

America's Car-Mart officials credited the strong first-quarter results to operational improvements made over the past 18 months. Furthermore, cost-control efforts allowed the company to keep its retail sales prices flat compared with the fiscal fourth-quarter.

Shares of America's Car Mart climbed 87 cents, or 4.5 percent, to $20.30 in premarket activity. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $9.02 to $21.33.