Shares of World Acceptance rose after the consumer-finance company posted sharply higher first-quarter profit and said that it has expanded underwriting standards that will boost customer lending.

The stock was up over 14% to $207.07 in recent trading, and is up more than 48% since the start of the year.

The company on Friday posted net income of $6.1 million, or $1.33 a share, compared with $1.6 million, or 30 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 4.8% to $139.2 million.

The company said that it expanded underwriting and expects to carefully increase new customer lending in the coming quarters.

At the end of its prior fiscal year, World Acceptance tightening underwriting of new customers at the end of the prior fiscal year, citing macroeconomic uncertainty and the proportion of new customers already in its portfolio. As a result, its customer base decreased 1.9% .

Write to Grace Yoon at grace.yoon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 24, 2026 11:58 ET (15:58 GMT)

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