World Acceptance Corp. announced unaudited consolidated earnings results for the third quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2016. For the quarter, the company's net income decreased 34.6% to $9.6 million compared to $14.8 million for the same quarter of the prior year. Net income per diluted share decreased 35.3% to $1.10  compared to $1.70 in the prior year quarter. Total revenues decreased to $130.8 million, a 6.4% decrease from the $139.7 million reported for the third quarter last year. Income before taxes was $14,320,000 against $25,527,000 a year ago.

For the nine months, the company's net income decreased 27.5% to $41.7 million compared with $57.6 million for the nine months ended December 31, 2015. Fully diluted net income per share decreased 28.3% to $4.75 compared with $6.63 for the first nine months of fiscal 2016. Total revenues declined 6.3% to $387.2 million compared with a revised $413.3 million during the corresponding period of the previous year. Income before taxes was $65,273,000 against $91,632,000 a year ago. Return on average assets (trailing 12 months) was 8.4% against 11.9% a year ago. Return on average equity (trailing 12 months) 17.6% against 31.7% a year ago.

The company announced that the provision for the quarter increased $4.5 million when comparing the third quarter of fiscal to 2017 to the third quarter of fiscal 2016. This is primarily due to an increase in net charge-offs and a larger increase in loans outstanding quarter over quarter. Net charge-offs as a percentage of average net loans on an annualized basis increased from 14.6% to 16.9% when comparing the two quarters. The prior year net charge-off rate benefited from the monthly sale of accounts previously charged-off totaling approximately $0.5 million. Consolidated net charge-offs excluding the impact of the charge-off sale were up $2.3 million when comparing the two fiscal quarters.