World Acceptance Corp (WRLD) 2013 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning and welcome to the World Acceptance Corporation sponsored third-quarter press release conference call. This call is being recorded. At this time all participants have been placed on listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the presentation by the Corporation's CEO and his other officers.

Before we begin, the Corporation has requested that I make the following announcement. The comments made during this conference may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21e of the Securities and Exchange Act 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 words anticipate, estimate, intend, plan, expect, believe, may, will and should or any variation of the foregoing and similar expressions are forward-looking statements.

Factors that could cause actual results or performance to differ from the expectations expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements include the factors discussed in today's earnings press release and in the Risk Factors section of the Corporations most recent Form 10-K and other 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, Sandy McLean, CEO. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Vicki. And I also would like to welcome everybody this morning to our third-quarter conference call. I hope that everybody has had a chance to review the press release that was released this morning as well as my prepared remarks.

This is a new format for us and I think it works better rather than me read this to get it out sooner so everybody has a chance to review it and think about any questions they may ask. If this format continues to work well we will continue to probably use this format going forward.

With that being said, I would like to now open the floor for questions for anybody who may have any. Vicki.

(Operator Instructions). John Rowan, Sidoti & Company.

Looking at the diluted share count, right, it seemed as if you guys bought back about 900,000 shares worth of stock in the quarter. Am I right on that?

In the current quarter it was part of the script. It was right at -- Kelly, have you got that number right in front of you? I believe it is right around 900,000 shares, yes.

Okay, but the diluted share count only came down 187,000, so I am wondering what the timing of those repurchases were and what the diluted share count at the end of the quarter was?

John, this is Kelly. The majority of those shares were bought after November 13, so the second half of the quarter.

So -- and I assume the diluted share count is quite a bit lower than where the average share count was for the quarter?

Correct.

Do you have the period end number?

Period end number, yes, if you will bear with me one second. If you've got another question ask it while I look it up.

Sure. I was wondering, we have seen a lot of your other peers -- maybe you wouldn't call them your peers -- but some of the other companies that are loosely regarded in this space offering a lot of installment products -- whether it be on the Internet or through other brick-and-mortar locations. Are you guys seeing what you would think is any increased competition coming from that or are they just basically swapping out payday loan customers into installment products?

I don't know that I can fairly answer that. I am not seeing any direct competition results of it -- I'm being told that some of the payday lenders are offering various products. I am not -- but I really -- I don't -- Mark, if you can add anything to that, I really --.

We are not hearing anything from the branches relative to our customers indicating alternative sources for that kind of financial need. If those products are out there we are just not directly seeing them.

Okay. Any thoughts on what you are seeing here in the tax refund season? I assume if taxes are late but commensurate size on a year-over-year level it is a benefit to you guys? Any thoughts on where we stand?

It's kind of premature to really answer that. I think we are fairly level with last year, which is not bad considering the delay in the actual -- the delay with the IRS actually processing returns.

All of our customers -- this is Mark, John. All of our customers are certainly aware that processing will not occur until, at the earliest, the 30th. And so, it's backing up the process, but it is doing almost exactly what our tax prep partners, Tax Tech Inc., thought it would do and it's in the ramp up period right now where we are seeing a lot more activity.

As far as regulations go, what are your -- people telling you regarding the authority of the CFPB at this point following the appellate court decision?

I think we are in the same position as so many other people that it was certainly an interesting ruling by that court. But I think ultimately it will be a decision by the Supreme Court as to what is going to take place.

And obviously it was the National Labor Relations Board that was affected by that decision. But you would assume if it stands up it would be a similar type ruling on Mr. Cordray's. But it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

And just one last question -- I'm sorry, Mark. You had something else?

Kelly has your share count.

Okay.

At December 31 the shares outstanding were 12,554,000. And, John, a couple other things to note regarding the diluted share count going forward. One, as we released in an 8-K in December, we did have a large stock grant that was issued and that impacted the current quarter. Diluted EPS was about 130,000 shares. However, that was only from an average standpoint included in one month. So going forward that will be closer to 500,000.

Okay, but the 12,554,000, that is the diluted or is that --?

That is the basic -- outstanding.

That is the basic outstanding.

Yes.

Okay. And then one last question going back to obviously the grants and the new compensation agreement. Just to make sure I understand it, because obviously you guys put out some commentary on it in the pre remarks. The earnings goals that you have set for yourself, right, that includes the expenses related to the buyback -- to the new compensation agreement, correct?

Let me correct one thing. We didn't set for ourselves; the compensation committee of the Board established this program and set this. But, yes, the targets that were outlined do include whatever type of expense associated with these grants.

Okay, thank you.

Bob Ramsey, FBR.

I just want to hear a little more color on the expense front. I know the script sort of highlighted that there were some timing issues or maybe true-ups on some variable comp. How are you guys thinking about expenses going forward? Is G&A to revenues the right way to think about it? And if so, you were a little bit higher this quarter than you have been in the past. Is there room to work that back down?

Well -- and I made an attempt to isolate those that I thought were more timing related like the bonus accruals and so forth and those that were more permanent related. And that is more like -- currently our claims ratio as far as our group insurance is moving forward as the cost of healthcare -- that will likely be a little bit higher going forward.

But -- and just like we mentioned the stock compensation expense, that would likely be a little higher going forward. But at this point there is no reason to believe that we can't continue to control -- and I think control our expenses as a percent of revenue. And, yes, I think that is the most appropriate way to look at it going forward.

Given the lower share count, timing differences to an expense item or revenue item have a big impact on a quarterly basis. But generally going -- when you look at it on an annual basis I believe that we should still continue to get some economies of scale over time.

Okay. And so, if last year G&A to revenues was between 48 and 48.5%, is that a good sort of annualized range in future periods still, you think?

I think it's -- I don't know what that number is going to be. If it was without any impact of this large equity grant that is out there that will have an impact, but it will then be kind of rolling through. So that is the only large thing that is going through there out of the ordinary.

So I think we would be better off -- would be in a better position to judge what to expect as of the end of March going forward rather than what is going to happen in the next month and so forth.

Okay. And I know you all highlighted in the announcements the repurchases you made I guess through the end of last year. And also I guess you will have already -- have you already purchased some stock this quarter? I'm sorry; I went through the script so quickly before the call.

Yes, we have, about $18 billion worth and 9 -- over 900 -- yes, I mean we have and it is in the script. So I don't want to answer it right now. But -- I just don't remember.

Bob, this is Kelly. We repurchased about $18.2 million and that is roughly 240,000 shares.

Okay, very good. I think that is all I've got right now. Thank you.

Bill Armstrong, CL King & Associates.

A couple of questions on those equity grants from December 5. So the estimated annual pre-tax expense you have outlined in the 8-K, does that assume that you will achieve the maximum targets on compounded EPS growth when we look at those expense estimates? How should we think about that?

The answer to that is yes and that is an estimate; it will be revised as time goes forward. It is being done -- well, it is actually in three different parts. You've got a certain part of it that is time based that there are options, there is another part that is based on a three-year target that is a much smaller part. And the bulk of those restricted shares are based on five-year growth targets between fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2017.

And those -- at this point in time, we are assuming that we will be hitting, but obviously that is an estimate that will be adjusted going forward each period depending on where we are at that point in time. So they are -- that is a maximum full disclosure type of thing.

Okay, so that is the maximum. Now, so are those expenses then going to be purely incremental going forward? In other words, is that just additional expense that didn't exist before or does this program replace an expiring program from previous years?

This is a change in the compensations committee approach as -- instead of having annual grants that have a onetime grant that represents basically a five-year period. So those annual grants will not be made, generally speaking. And so, this will not be totally incremental expense, it will be a net difference between what has previously been issued on an annual basis as opposed to [this cycle], this one time thing.

Okay, I understand. Thanks for that clarification.

I think if you will bear with me one second, I think I can give you some -- I mean, please don't hold this number to us exactly, but we have made an attempt to say that had this program continued like it was previously done with annual grants and so forth, the assumption is --.

I don't know what the Board would have done, but had they been consistent with what they have done for the last few years as opposed to what they did do and in the process of doing, the impact on expenses for the next five years are $4.7 million for 2013, $10.3 million for 2014, $7.6 million for 2015, $4.6 million for 2016 and $2.2 million for 2017.

So that total number in that range is what you would anticipate being the impact of this versus what they had previously done. Now that is not to say they would have done it or anything else, but that is the only type of guidance that we have at this point that would be relevant.

Okay, just one very quick follow-up. Were there any incentive compensation or bonuses given out in the quarter kind of that might have been pushed -- brought forward to avoid potential tax increases for 2013 (multiple speakers) tax increases?

There were not. The only remaining incentive type of -- equity type of grants whatever is out there that was not part of this grant were carryovers, multi- -- vesting -- each of the past grants have vested over a period of three to four years. And so, any remainders from those programs are still out there. But there has been no acceleration whatsoever of either equity type of grants or direct cash compensation type of things.

Okay, great. Thank you very much.

Kyle Joseph, Stephens.

Most of my questions have been answered. But just following up on the tax refund delays, have you guys in any effect on the credit or your delinquencies as a result of that this quarter or are those in line as well?

The only -- this is going to be very vague because I don't want to give any real predictions, but the only real difference is we track pretty closely the amount of reduction in our ledger balances year over year. And in the month of January we are slightly behind the reduction in those ledger balances for the same level last year.

And we believe that is probably as a result of the delay in individuals in getting their tax refunds. But I don't think it's -- that is certainly not going to be a major impact during the course of the quarter.

Okay, and can you remind me what tax rate we should be using going forward? Is it the 37.5%?

37% to 37.5% should be the good annualized rate.

Okay, thanks a lot for answering my questions.

Bill Dezellem, Tieton Capital Management.

we have a couple of questions. First of all, last quarter you spent some time discussing the calendar impact on the September quarter results. So I'm hoping that you can review that with us and then what impact you felt that that had on the December quarter and how the December quarter calendar with the last day of the year falling kind of on a Monday that was kind of a dangling chad day almost it felt like. Would you give us some perspective on that? And then I do have an additional question, please.

And I attempted to do so in the prepared comments. But if you remember last quarter --

And, Sandy, I do have to apologize I did not actually have a chance to read the script at all, so I'm coming into this completely cold.

That is no problem at all. I would be more than happy to address it. But if you remember last quarter we said that we believe, because of the unusual timing of the quarter end, that somewhere between $2 million and $2.5 million potentially was being deferred from the second quarter into the third quarter. It's very difficult to actually quantify that number.

But if you look at our overall yield as -- when you look at the quarterly yields and you look at our interest and fee income as a percent of average net loans for the current quarter it was about 11.3%. And if you looked at the last quarter it was about 4.6%. But if you look at it for the nine-month period it is about 7.9%. And our yields do not jump around like that.

So basically that would indicate that that deferral that we alluded to did in fact take place. Now once again, it is almost because of the -- we don't isolate what payments come in from what period and so forth. It is impossible to quantify whether it is exactly $2 million or slightly over, slightly less. But we do believe that unusual timing did in fact take place, as we indicated.

And then continuing that thought into the March quarter, because the 30th and 31st fall on a Saturday and a Sunday, it is possible to see a replay of the September quarter phenomenon, is that correct?

It is not correct. As we indicated last quarter that we were going to actually change the system -- change our system such that it is a full-blown -- I mean a full accrual accounting and not a cash -- not a (inaudible), not anything else, but a full accrual. And as we indicated, we do not believe on an annual basis that you will see a significant difference in your expected earnings and so forth going forward.

But by doing this we will eliminate those fluctuations that we have been seeing on a monthly and quarterly basis. And it will probably show that there will be some fluctuations on reported quarters, but it really will not have a major impact on any annual period.

But we should not experience this same type of thing going forward. And it was really unusual that this circumstance has happened one time in 11 years and then it was two more times coming up in the near future. So we believe it is appropriate to make the changes to our system.

Great, thank you. And then Indiana, did you enter that state earlier this year? And if so, when did you and have you had enough time now to sense whether the regulations and the regulatory bodies, the way that you thought they would treat you, is turning out to be the case?

Sure, Bill, this is Mark. We entered -- in the second fiscal quarter I believe was the first office that we opened. I think at this moment in time we currently have six offices that are now operational and approximately $2 million of loan receivables, the law is exactly the way we anticipated it going in. And our general growth in sales and those offices is progressing well for a brand-new state.

Again, most of these folks -- some of our employees up there transferred out of Kentucky and Tennessee and Illinois to help us open there. But the vast majority of the rest were hired locally. So we are in a heavy training period, trying to get folks ramped up and understanding how we operate the business and we look forward to tremendous success there in that state.

And we have not had any regulatory issues whatsoever at this point in time and do not anticipate any.

Great, thank you. And finally, what insights and update do you have for us relative to Mexico?

Again, once you have a chance to review the script, I think we looked at -- we had quite a bit of commentary on that, but we continue to be very pleased with the prospects there. It's becoming more profitable. The delinquencies and charge-offs are flattening out. The growth is continuing to be on track with what we had hoped. And we just believe that it will continue to only get better.

Thank you both.

Henry Coffey, Sterne, Agee.

I've got a bunch of sort of small questions. You were talking about comparing the old plan with the new plan, Sandy, and am I to assume correctly that under the new plan costs will be lower over the five-year cycle? Is that how I should interpret those remarks?

I think it will depend upon our success in achieving what I think are fairly substantial growth goals. If in fact we are able to hit the performance targets established by the Board, then I believe when I gave you those quarterly numbers it would indicate it is going to be quite a bit more expensive.

But it would be more growth in profitability to kind of offset that we are assuming?

Well, I mean we're going to have to or we are not going to be able to maintain -- I believe the underlying growth rate to hit the maximum target is over 22%, growth in (multiple speakers) --

Right.

-- a compounded basis. So and that is absorbing all of the expense associated with it. So we're going to have to continue to perform before any of -- before these last shares are issued.

On the installment loan product, if I have done my sums correctly and my multiplications, the installment loan product at the payday loan Companies is offering is arguably 1.5 to 2.5 times more expensive than your product. Just two questions. Are you drawing in a better customer do you think? And why aren't you advertising this in a more vocal format? Or are you advertising this to your customers?

Well, we are not. I mean most of our marketing is -- not all of it but certainly a large percentage of our marketing is in the form of direct mail. And we have not to this point addressed comparable products in that piece of direct mail and we would be hesitant to do so unless we knew specifically in each location whether or not it is factually accurate.

So -- and you are telling me something I didn't know because, as Mark and I both indicated earlier when we were asked about these alternative products that the payday lending people were offering, we are not necessarily seeing them, but of course we don't study the industry like you do.

So if in fact they are offering these products in an installment basis based on twice the cost of us, I don't know what to say other than I don't -- I don't know if it is a better customer or not because we -- if it is the same customer that used to use the payday loan products we know they at least have to have a banking relationship and we know that a lot of our customers --

Well, maybe a more reliable customer or a more predictable customer.

Henry, I don't know how to answer that, I'm sorry. I guess the direct answer is, no, we are not currently advertising that fact.

I will do the study and I will write the ad, I will call it don't be stupid. The other thing is (multiple speakers).

(Multiple speakers), okay?

No, I think this is something that is important for people to understand, that it is not a question of you competing with them, you are actually offering a better product already.

The other issue is with the installment loan product, whether it is a payday based product or your product or a credit card product, there is always kind of a wave you go through. And looking at your provision and your loss ratios this quarter, my sort of simplistic view is that you have hit an inflection point where the product is a little more mature now and at least on a year-over-year basis the provision burden is lower.

And is that accurate? And as that product matures you will see a positive revenue stream that is longer lived than the small loan product, but lower credit cost? And are you at -- do you think you are at that inflection point yet?

I think, without addressing specifically your comment about any quarterly information, I think what is important is to know that this was the 15th quarter-over-quarter decrease in our net annualized net charge-off as a percentage of average net loan. So this is a trend that has been continuing.

And I don't believe it is necessarily a matter of the seasoning of the portfolio; I think it is more of a shift that we have seen towards the larger loan. I think I said in those comments that this is the fifth or sixth year in a row that we have seen somewhere between a half and (technical difficulty) --

Right.

(Technical difficulty) decline in our yields because of these larger loan products. But --

But now losses are coming lower too?

As a result of that that is probably what is driving our loss ratios down. And it's the reason I believe that we -- as I mentioned earlier, I believe we will be able to continue to see some kind of improvement in our G&A to revenue ratios, although the current quarter and the current circumstances don't necessarily fall within those guidelines. But it is (multiple speakers).

Well, it was still a 21% growth quarter, so you are saying without some of this noise it would've been even a bigger quarter?

Well, we would like to see it better than 7% or 6% growth in net earnings, but we are certainly benefiting from the aggressive share repurchase program. And we have been disclosing and talking about that for several years, which we can -- we have planned on continuing to do.

And now that you are in the harvest season what is the trigger for you to start buying back stock? Just the calendar or you are going to wait for loan balances to start to come down in the spring or when do you really jump back in again?

I think we -- as we disclosed, we have been in this entire quarter. We will continue --

Right.

-- to be in to a certain extent going forward, but we've got -- we are subject to a borrowing base, we are subject to certain covenants. And while we are not that leveraged, I think we were only 1.37% to 1% debt to equity at the end of the last quarter, that because of the profitability and the cash we will collect during the current quarter we are going to continue to drive that leverage back down and our internal targets are to have a level higher than that.

But we have got to work with our banks to make sure we are within the loan agreements and we are working through those details now. But suffice it to say, we would prefer to be greater than 1 to 1 leveraged debt to equity. And we can certainly manage a lot more debt than that.

Thanks for your comments and all this additional detail is extremely helpful.

John Rowan, Sidoti & Company.

Sandy, you just answered the question I had. But I just want to make sure I understood that. Your goal for debt to equity is about 1 to 1, so it balances out kind of your share repurchases? Did I hear that right?

I think we said that is a minimum goal, but I think we can certainly handle a much more levered company, but we have to work with our bank group to make sure that works and we have to deal with quite a bit of seasonality because of what happens in our third quarter and our fourth quarter. So it is hard to set a specific target when your balance sheet is -- expanding in December and contracting in March. So --

Just one last question. Sandy, you also alluded to this earlier when you said that switching off of the rule 78, while it doesn't have an impact on an annual basis, it might have some impact seasonally? Can you talk to that a little bit? Is there any change in the heavy seasonal pattern in the March quarter?

From an earnings standpoint it will be more level. And I don't want to address that now because we are working through all the details. For instance, if you're on a true cash basis and you are growing all of these loans in the December quarter, then it's -- then our accounting has been a little more conservative than an accrual basis, because all those loans we're not reporting earnings on. But it is consistent year over year over year.

But then in the March quarter when you have a lot of cash payments then it is a little -- you kind of make up for that. So, I don't want to get into the details, that is something Kelly is working through right now and will be part of the disclosure next quarter. But I do believe there will be a slight positive impact on an annual basis going forward, but certainly not of a material nature.

Well, can you remind me, were you -- did you use the old accounting method for this December quarter or is this how you made the switch previously?

We have been consistent, completely consistent with what we have been doing for the last I can tell you 23 years since I have been here.

So then when does the switch take effect?

March -- the last thing we will do in March.

Okay, thank you.

[Clifford Sossan], [CIS Investment Partners].

One of the things that happened this quarter was payroll taxes went up. Can you just give me a sense as to at what point you guys started to have your employees underwrite to an assumption of a higher level of payroll taxes? Is it possible there is a book of loans that were maybe underwritten in the back half of last year where there might be some tax-related payment ability shock that we should expect to see through charge-offs over the next six months?

This is Mark. Our underwriting standards really didn't change at all. The nominal impact of a payroll tax increase on our customer base is very small, I mean when you are talking 1% or 2% on payroll taxes. So, no, we don't expect to see any impact of that whatsoever.

Thanks.

(Operator Instructions). Joshua Axel, UBS.

Just one quick question for you. On the share repurchase, I know you've purchased a significant amount of shares here in the quarter and, by my calculations, it looks like maybe over the last five years about 30% of the shares outstanding.

When you look out over the next five years can you talk a little bit about what your long-term strategy with the share repurchase program is? Is there a share amount you want to get to or as long as the shares seem undervalued do you plan on purchasing them back indefinitely as long as cash flow stays strong? Thanks a lot.

As long as cash flow remain strong, as long as our access to capital remains such that it is, and as long as the share price remains a good investment for our shareholders we will continue to do this going forward.

I don't think it's -- we haven't been aggressive just over the last five years, we have been aggressive in repurchasing shares over the last -- I think since 1993 or over the last 15 years at least. It's been more aggressive over the last three years. And I think the timing of those purchases will depend upon a lot of factors. But that is an ongoing long-term strategy which we believe makes sense for our shareholders to continue to employ.

Thank you.

[Clifford Sossan].

Do you guys mind just spending a few minutes helping us think through the long-term growth expectations, assumptions -- things that might help you to -- help us think about that? Because if we think about how you are going to get to your 22% compound rate of growth to max out the compensation package that you guys negotiated on in December, it would seem to me that you would need to have a meaningfully higher level of organic net income growth over the next five years than you have had.

And I would imagine that when the competition package was created the Board was looking at some sort of set of management expectations and then computing off of that. So maybe it would be helpful for us to understand why you think growth is below trend now and why you think that it should over the next few years be higher?

I believe the historical growth of this Company has exceeded the 11% year-over-year asset growth we are currently facing. We have had somewhat of a decline over the last couple years. And to a certain extent as you get larger it becomes much more difficult to maintain the same type of asset growth because your base is so much larger.

But we still have ample opportunities of locations to enter; we certainly have a lot of opportunities in our existing states and Mexico and I don't believe that anything fundamentally changed in what we have been doing over the last 50 years.

So I believe a combination of continued office expansion, a combination of asset growth as a result of growth in those of new offices as well as there are so many less than mature offices still outstanding -- still in existence. We should be able to continue some rate of asset growth -- I can't tell -- I'm not going to say what that is because a lot depends on the future, but certainly a reasonable rate of asset growth.

And as we move into different markets, whether it is larger loans or smaller loans, we have kind of deemed that we have not had a major dilution to our return on assets, it is 13% something for the trailing 12 months and that -- which is just as high as it has been for quite some number of years.

I believe as we get larger we can continue to see, as we have talked about on this phone, some economies of scale on an ongoing basis, although a lot of our costs are variable costs. And I believe that there is a lot of things that we can do to continue the same type of track record that we have had for 50 years over the foreseeable future.

But can I lay that out in a model and a spread sheet (inaudible), I'm not in a position to do that and would never do so anyway because we don't provide that kind of guidance. But I certainly don't believe the outlook for this Company is anything but positive.

In addition, I mean we are faced with an economic reality out there right now that, while the unemployment rate hovers or dips or up and down a little bit, the overall marginally employed rate and those that have exited the workforce altogether is a massive number.

And I have to believe -- although the government doesn't really provide the statistics -- that there is a disparate impact. I believe that our customer base is probably more heavily unemployed than the average in the US.

It's impossible for us to make new loans to individuals who are not employed or don't have a steady source of income. So I think one of the drivers that will occur is when employment picks up, when we start to see people more comfortable that their jobs are secure, their paychecks are secure, that we will see a gradual return to more historical growth rates.

But it is difficult right now, because I believe the economic scenario out there for our customers is a little worse than the media wishes to paint it.

That is very helpful. And to that point, if you were to look across your offices across different states, are you able to see that in states with a higher level of under employment that those states are experiencing lower levels of organic loan growth in mature stores (multiple speakers)?

I'm really not looking at it that way. I mean I could, but there are so many other factors out there with regards to exactly what you were getting to, what stores are mature, what stores are not, what is the size of the towns that we are in, what is the saturation of the offices in a state?

Obviously we are not growing nearly as rapidly in a state like South Carolina where we haven't increased our number of branches in quite some time as opposed to say a Wisconsin where our growth rate may exceed 300% simply because we are adding offices virtually every other day.

So -- or not every other day, but every other week or so there is a new office there. So it is very difficult. And there are no mature offices in Wisconsin. So to get what you are after is a very difficult and elusive number.

Got it. Well, thank you very much.

[Les Bryant], UBS Financial Services.

I have been a shareholder and also an investment advisor for many years and I have a lot of faith in you guys and you have done a good job. But one thing that troubles me a little bit is our stock is getting so high and we are getting fewer shares and less -- it seems like less institutional support. It looks to me like if you would split the stock down that it would both benefit the shareholders and also the officers who are selling their options. Could you comment on that?

Yes, I mean you have actually had this question before. So certainly it has been raised before. And we have talked about it as a Board and as a Management Group. And there doesn't appear to be a shortage in the available shares that are being traded because we've purchased well over 3 million over the last year.

And we believe that two shares at $30 apiece versus one at $60 apiece is basically equivalent. And depending on how you are paying for the trade of shares, if it is so much per share you are doubling your commissions. But that being said, it is something that we will continue to evaluate.

We appreciate your comment and we certainly appreciate your support as a shareholder and an investment advisor. And we certainly don't take these things lightly. But just at this point in time it's -- the management and the Board has felt that it really is not necessarily the best thing to do at this point.

Well, I disagree. But you are running the Company and I will respect you for that.

Well, thank you so much for that.

And there are no other questions. So, Mr. McLean, I will turn the conference back over to you for any additional or closing remarks.

All I wanted to say is we really appreciate your interest and continued support for World Acceptance Corporation and I hope that you all have a great day. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you for your participation. And before concluding this morning's teleconference the Corporation has asked to again remind you that the comments made during this conference may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of section 21e of the Securities and Exchange Act 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.

Factors that could cause actual results or performance to differ from the expectations expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements include the factors discussed in today's earnings press release and in the risk factors section of the Corporation's most recent Form 10-K and other 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. This concludes the World Acceptance Corporation's quarterly teleconference.