World Acceptance (WRLD) AI Stock Analysis

• Market Cap: $665.89M
• Dividend Yield: N/A
• Average Volume (3M): 67.38K
• Price to Earnings (P/E): 17.3
• Beta (1Y): 1.28
• Revenue Growth: 2.31%
• EPS Growth: -27.81%
• Country: US
• Employees: 2,872
• Sector: Financial
• Sector Strength: 70
• Industry: Financial - Credit Services
• EPS (TTM): -0.19
• Shares Outstanding: 4,936,879
• 10 Day Avg. Volume: 68,204
• 30 Day Avg. Volume: 67,381
• PEG Ratio: 0.34
• Price to Book (P/B): 1.59
• Price to Sales (P/S): 1.23
• P/FCF Ratio: 2.78
• Enterprise Value/Market Cap: 2.25
• Enterprise Value/Revenue: 2.61
• Enterprise Value/Gross Profit: 4.23
• Enterprise Value/Ebitda: 24.37
• 1Y Price Target: N/A
• Price Target Upside: N/A
• Rating Consensus: N/A
• Number of Analyst Covering: 0
• EPS Forecast (FY): 7.76
• Revenue Forecast (FY): $572.48M

• Rating: 60 Neutral
• Price Target: $138.00 ▼(-0.68% Downside)
• Action: Reiterated Date: 02/18/26
• Date: Action: Reiterated 02/18/26

The score is driven primarily by improving multi-year profitability and solid annual cash conversion, tempered by meaningful leverage and weaker recent (TTM) margin signals. Technically, the stock remains below key longer-term averages with a negative MACD, limiting conviction despite neutral momentum readings. Valuation is reasonable (mid-teens P/E), and the latest call/corporate updates lean positive on growth, credit quality, and buybacks, but acknowledge near-term earnings pressure from higher provisions and costs.

Positive Factors

Improved Profitability & Cash Conversion

Annual statements show a sustained recovery in operating and net margins with free cash flow closely tracking net income. Durable cash conversion supports internal investment, reserve rebuilding, and shareholder returns (buybacks) while providing buffer against credit cycles over the next several quarters.

Stronger New‑Customer Metrics & Yields

Higher origination volumes, a 25% larger new-customer ledger, improved early credit performance and an ~84bp yield lift reflect tightened underwriting and pricing power. These trends support sustainable margin improvement and healthier vintage economics as newer accounts season and retention improves over coming quarters.

Aggressive Capital Return / Share Repurchases

Large, executed repurchases and a $50M authorization demonstrate management's commitment to capital returns and confidence in cash generation. Durable effect: lower share count improves per‑share metrics and provides optionality to allocate capital between reserves, growth, and returns through cyclical periods.

Negative Factors

Material Leverage

A debt-heavy capital structure (debt > equity historically) amplifies earnings volatility in a credit-sensitive consumer finance model. Elevated leverage reduces liquidity flexibility, constrains lending capacity or buybacks under stress, and increases refinancing and covenant risk if credit costs rise over the next several quarters.

Elevated Provisions & Compensation Pressures

An $8M incremental provision tied to growth and heightened share‑based and personnel expenses materially compressed near‑term earnings. If provisioning or elevated comp persists while new vintages season, margin recovery could be delayed, reducing free cash flow and limiting strategic flexibility over multiple quarters.

Choppy Revenue & Inconsistent TTM Margins/Cash Flow

Declining or uneven revenue alongside weaker TTM margins and anomalous TTM cash-flow datapoints signal volatility in earnings quality and forecasting. This inconsistency complicates capital planning and reserve adequacy assessments, making performance less predictable across the 2–6 month horizon as new accounts season and data normalizes.

World Acceptance Business Overview & Revenue Model

Company Description

World Acceptance Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in small-loan consumer finance business. The company offers short-term small installment loans, medium-term larger installment loans, related credit insurance, and ancillary products and services to individuals. It also provides automobile club memberships to its borrowers; and income tax return preparation and electronic filing services. In addition, the company markets and sells credit life, credit accident and health, credit property and auto, unemployment, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance in connection with its loans. It serves individuals with limited access to other sources of consumer credit, such as banks, credit unions, other consumer finance businesses, and credit card lenders. As of March 31, 2022, it operated 1,167 branches in Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin. World Acceptance Corporation was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina.

How the Company Makes Money

World Acceptance generates revenue primarily through interest and fees associated with its personal installment loans. The company's lending model focuses on offering loans to individuals with lower credit scores, which typically results in higher interest rates compared to conventional lenders. Additionally, the company earns revenue from various fees, including origination fees, late fees, and other service charges tied to its loan products. WRLD also benefits from partnerships with other financial service providers, enhancing its product offerings and attracting a broader customer base. The combination of these revenue streams allows World Acceptance to maintain a sustainable business model within the competitive consumer finance landscape.

World Acceptance Financial Statement Overview

Summary

Profitability rebounded strongly from FY2023 into FY2024–FY2025, and annual cash conversion appears solid with FCF closely tracking net income. Offsetting this, revenue has been uneven with slight declines in FY2024–FY2025, leverage is material (debt above equity in recent years), and TTM margins are notably weaker than FY2025 alongside some questionable TTM cash-flow datapoints that reduce confidence in the most recent trend.

Income Statement

Profitability has recovered strongly versus FY2023, with FY2024–FY2025 showing meaningfully higher operating and net margins (FY2025 net margin ~15.9% vs. FY2023 ~3.4%). However, growth is choppy: revenue declined in FY2024 and FY2025 (slightly), and the latest TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months) margin profile is notably weaker than FY2025 (TTM net margin ~7.5% and EBIT margin ~9.5%), suggesting recent pressure on earnings quality and/or credit costs despite a high reported TTM revenue growth rate.

Balance Sheet

Leverage is material, with debt running above equity in recent annual periods (debt-to-equity ~1.20–2.09 from FY2021–FY2024), which can amplify returns but increases risk in a credit-sensitive business. Returns on equity improved from FY2023 (~5.5%) to FY2024–FY2025 (~18%–20%), indicating better profitability, but the higher-debt capital structure limits balance-sheet flexibility. TTM balance-sheet ratios appear inconsistent (e.g., debt-to-equity shown as 0.0), so the assessment leans more heavily on the audited annual trend.

Cash Flow

Cash generation in the annual statements looks solid and consistent, with free cash flow closely tracking net income (roughly ~95%–99% across FY2021–FY2025) and strong coverage of earnings by operating cash flow. That said, free cash flow growth has been volatile (down in FY2024 and FY2025, modestly positive in FY2023). The TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months) cash flow figures are extreme and not internally consistent with the annual history, which raises data-quality uncertainty and reduces confidence in the most recent cash-flow signal.

Breakdown	TTM	Mar 2025	Mar 2024	Mar 2023	Mar 2022	Mar 2021
Income Statement
Total Revenue	573.44M	564.84M	573.21M	616.55M	585.19M	527.99M
Gross Profit	353.48M	395.63M	368.01M	306.62M	365.55M	416.05M
EBITDA	61.41M	164.97M	110.30M	38.06M	77.25M	123.82M
Net Income	42.76M	89.74M	77.35M	21.23M	53.92M	88.28M
Balance Sheet
Total Assets	1.14B	1.01B	1.06B	1.12B	1.22B	954.27M
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments	9.45M	9.73M	11.84M	16.51M	19.24M	15.75M
Total Debt	826.62M	525.56M	577.95M	679.00M	779.85M	496.73M
Total Liabilities	790.78M	568.15M	631.92M	732.09M	845.27M	549.34M
Stockholders Equity	351.60M	439.48M	424.43M	385.23M	373.02M	404.93M
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow	252.08M	250.48M	259.85M	285.73M	266.38M	215.27M
Operating Cash Flow	255.71M	254.16M	265.78M	291.55M	272.45M	226.95M
Investing Cash Flow	-206.14M	-152.75M	-135.14M	-180.58M	-451.89M	-82.00M
Financing Cash Flow	-22.94M	-103.52M	-135.31M	-113.70M	182.93M	-140.83M

World Acceptance Technical Analysis

• Technical Analysis Sentiment: Positive
• Last Price: 138.95
• 50DMA: Negative
• 100DMA: Negative
• 200DMA: Negative
• MACD: Negative
• RSI: Neutral
• STOCH: Neutral

Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For WRLD, the sentiment is Positive. The current price of 138.95 is above the 20-day moving average (MA) of 127.59, above the 50-day MA of 135.81, and below the 200-day MA of 153.54, indicating a neutral trend. The MACD of 0.28 indicates Negative momentum. The RSI at 53.63 is Neutral, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 78.73 is Neutral, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Positive sentiment for WRLD.

World Acceptance Peers Comparison

Name	Overall Rating	Market Cap	P/E Ratio	ROE	Dividend Yield	Revenue Growth	EPS Growth
EZPW	74 Outperform	$1.64B	17.14	12.97%	―	9.70%	26.63%
MFIN	74 Outperform	$234.89M	5.67	10.79%	4.44%	15.52%	2.05%
ATLC	73 Outperform	$792.05M	9.29	21.01%	―	25.29%	26.70%
Sector *	68 Neutral	$18.00B	11.42	9.92%	3.81%	9.73%	1.22%
RM	63 Neutral	$299.01M	7.15	11.43%	2.99%	9.63%	77.14%
WRLD	60 Neutral	$665.89M	17.27	14.57%	―	2.31%	-27.81%
GDOT	56 Neutral	$642.14M	―	-5.09%	―	23.12%	19.37%

World Acceptance Corporate Events

World Acceptance Names Turner Executive Vice President and COO

On February 17, 2026, World Acceptance Corporation announced that J. Tobin Turner had been appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, effective February 13, 2026, after previously serving as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Analytics. Turner, an academic-turned-operator with a Ph.D. in Operations and Supply Chain Management and prior experience running multi-location service businesses, will oversee the branch network and day-to-day operational execution.

His compensation package includes a $450,000 base salary, eligibility under the company’s equity and benefit programs, severance protections, and a mix of time-based and performance-based restricted stock tied in part to earnings-per-share targets through March 31, 2027. The appointment, supported by the CEO and board, underscores World Acceptance’s push to deepen data-driven decision-making and operational discipline in its branch-based lending business, a shift that could influence efficiency, growth, and returns for both field teams and shareholders.

The most recent analyst rating on (WRLD) stock is a Buy with a $132.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on World Acceptance stock, see the WRLD Stock Forecast page.

World Acceptance Authorizes New $50 Million Share Buyback

On February 11, 2026, World Acceptance Corporation’s board authorized a new share repurchase program of up to $50 million of its outstanding common stock, inclusive of any remaining capacity from prior buyback authorizations. The scale and timing of these repurchases will depend on factors such as the company’s share price, regulatory and credit agreement limits, available liquidity, and broader market conditions, and the program can be suspended or discontinued at any time, giving the company flexibility in its capital management strategy and potential support for shareholder value.

The decision underscores management’s willingness to return capital to shareholders while retaining the ability to adjust repurchases in response to shifts in economic conditions or internal funding needs. For investors, the program signals confidence in the company’s financial position, but its discretionary nature means the ultimate impact on earnings per share and ownership structure will hinge on how aggressively the board executes the authorization.

The most recent analyst rating on (WRLD) stock is a Hold with a $125.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on World Acceptance stock, see the WRLD Stock Forecast page.

World Acceptance Returns to Growth Amid Quarterly Net Loss

On January 27, 2026, World Acceptance Corporation reported results for its third quarter ended December 31, 2025, highlighting a return to portfolio growth after several years of contraction driven by post-pandemic tightening of underwriting standards. Gross loans outstanding rose 1.5% year over year to $1.40 billion, organic loan growth excluding acquisitions reached 2.5%, and the unique customer base expanded 4.1%, marking the largest customer base since fiscal 2022, supported by stronger origination volumes to both new and refinance customers and improved delinquency metrics. Despite a 1.9% increase in total revenues to $141.3 million and an 84-basis-point yield improvement, the company posted a net loss of $0.9 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, versus $13.4 million in net income a year earlier, as higher share-based compensation and a significantly elevated provision for credit losses—needed to rebuild reserves under CECL for a larger mix of new, higher-reserved customers—more than offset revenue gains, signaling a near-term earnings drag from its renewed growth strategy even as management points to better asset quality indicators and positions the portfolio for improved profitability once these newer customers season.

The most recent analyst rating on (WRLD) stock is a Hold with a $139.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on World Acceptance stock, see the WRLD Stock Forecast page.

World Acceptance Announces Executive Retirement Plan

On December 4, 2025, World Acceptance Corporation announced the retirement of D. Clinton Dyer, Executive Vice President and Chief Branch Operations Officer, effective March 31, 2026, after 30 years of service. In recognition of his contributions, the company approved a retirement package including compensation and benefits. J. Tobin Turner will assume interim leadership of branch operations during the transition, ensuring continuity in the company’s strategic focus and operational excellence.

The most recent analyst rating on (WRLD) stock is a Hold with a $161.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on World Acceptance stock, see the WRLD Stock Forecast page.