Top Performer for Thurs: World Acceptance (WRLD)

World Acceptance Corporation (WRLD - Snapshot Report) is up nearly 6% at the moment, which puts the small-loan consumer finance company on the Zacks #1 Rank Top Performers List for Thursday.

Last week, WRLD announced fiscal first-quarter earnings per share that beat the consensus, thanks in large part to increased loan demand. Other factors that contributed to the performance included expense control and close management of credit risks.

Volume is at approximately 181,000 shares currently, which is below the daily average of nearly 410,000.

WRLD is part of the finance-consumer loans industry. Nelnet, Inc. (NNI - Analyst Report) is the only other company from this space on today's Zacks #1 Rank List, which includes 230 stocks.

Earnings Estimates Gain

All 4 covering analysts have boosted their earnings expectations for this fiscal year over the past month. As a result, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the year ending March 2010 is now $3.80, or 8.6% better than the target 30 days ago of $3.50.

Analysts were also unanimous in their outlook for the year ending March 2011, sending the Zacks Consensus Estimate for that period higher by 7% in the past 30 days to $4.24 from $3.96. Next fiscal year's guidance also suggests year-over-year profit growth of 11.6%.

Fiscal First Quarter

Excluding items, WRLD announced earnings per share of 81 cents when it released fiscal first-quarter results on Jul 29. In addition to surpassing the year-ago result, the company was also able to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by more than 17%.

Total revenues advanced 13.4% to $100.2 million. The company stated that loan volume advanced 20.1% from last year as more traditional financing sources become more difficult to obtain.