Harp Rana
Analyst · Janney. Please go ahead
Thank you, Rob, and hello, everyone. Let me take you through our second quarter results in more detail. On Page 3 of the supplemental presentation, we provide our second quarter financial highlights. We generated net income of 20.2 million and diluted earnings per share of $1.87 resulting from our growth initiatives, stable operating expenses, lower funding costs and strong credit. To highlight the underlying momentum of our business, consider that last quarter, we generated 25.5 million in net income, inclusive of a 10.4 million decrease in our allowance for credit losses. This quarter, we generated 20.2 million of net income, inclusive of only a 200,000 decrease in our allowance. The business produced strong returns, with 7.1% ROA and 28.7% ROE this quarter and 8.2% ROA and 32.7% ROE through midyear. While our returns were aided by a benign credit environment, our ability to drive revenue to our bottom line and generate strong returns continues to pick up steam. As illustrated on Page 4, branch originations were well above the prior year, due in part to the pandemic as we ended the second quarter originating 263 million of loans in our branches. Meanwhile, we more than tripled direct mail and digital originations year-over-year to 110 million. Our total originations were a record 373 million, more than doubling the prior year period and 7% higher than the second quarter of 2019. Notably, our new growth initiatives drove 87 million of second quarter originations. Page 5 displays our portfolio growth and mix trends through June 30. We closed the quarter with net finance receivables of 1.2 billion, up 78 million from the prior quarter and 161 million from the prior year period as we continue to successfully execute on our new growth initiatives and marketing efforts. Our core loan portfolio grew 80 million or 7% from the prior quarter and 172 million or 17% from the prior year as we continue to expand our market share. Large loans grew 10% versus the first quarter of 2021, while small loans increased 3% quarter-over-quarter. For the third quarter, we expect demand to remain solid with some potential headwinds from the Child Tax Credit payment. Overall, we expect to see healthy quarter-over-quarter growth in our finance receivables portfolio in the third quarter. On Page 6, we show our digitally-sourced originations, which were 28.5% of our new total volume in the second quarter, another high watermark for us and a further testament to our ability to meet the needs of our customers and serve them through our omni-channel strategy. During the second quarter, large loans were 65% of our digitally-sourced originations. Turning to Page 7. Total revenue grew 11% to 99.7 million. Interest and fee yield increased 110 basis points year-over-year, primarily due to improved credit performance across the portfolio as a result of government stimulus, tightened underwriting during the pandemic, and our overall mix shift towards higher credit quality customers, resulting in fewer loans and non-accrual status and fewer interest accrual reversals. Sequentially, interest and fee yield and total revenue yield increased 50 and 70 basis points, respectively, due to credit performance and seasonality. As of June 30, 67% of our portfolio were large loans and 82% of our portfolio had an APR at or below 36%. In the third quarter, we expect total revenue yield to be approximately 60 basis points lower than the second quarter, and our interest in fee yield to be approximately 30 basis points lower due to our continued mix shift toward larger loans. Moving to Page 8. Our net credit loss rate was 7.4% for the quarter, a 320 basis point improvement year-over-year, while delinquencies remained at historically low levels. Net credit losses were also down 30 basis points from the first quarter due to the impact of government stimulus, improving economic conditions and our low delinquency levels. We expect that our full year net credit loss rate will be approximately 7%. Flipping to Page 9. The credit quality of our portfolio remains historically strong, thanks to the quality and adaptability of our underwriting criteria, including appropriate tightening during the pandemic, the performance of our custom scorecards and the impact of government stimulus. Our 30-plus day delinquency level as of June 30 was 3.6%, 120 basis-point improvement from the prior year, and notably 70 basis points lower than March 31. Moving forward, we expect 30-plus day delinquencies to rise gradually off of the June loan toward more normalized levels over the next 12 months. Turning to Page 10. We ended the first quarter with an allowance for credit losses of 139.6 million or 12.6% of net finance receivables. During the second quarter of 2021, the allowance decreased by $200,000 to 11.8% of net finance receivables. This decrease included a base reserve build of 6.1 million to support our strong portfolio growth and a COVID-19 reserve release of 6.3 million due to improving economic conditions. As a reminder, as our portfolio grows, we will continue to build additional reserves to support this new growth. With the improving economy, we've reduced the severity and the duration of our macro assumptions, including an assumption that the unemployment rate will be under 8% at the end of 2021. We will continue to review these assumptions every quarter to reflect changing macro conditions as the economy continues to rebound. Our $139.4 million allowance for credit losses as of June 30 continues to compare very favorably to our 30-plus day contractual delinquency of 42.8 million. We are confident that we remain appropriately reserved. Flipping to Page 11. G&A expenses for the second quarter of 2021 were 46.4 million, up 4.9 million or 11.7% from the prior year period, driven in part by normalized marketing from pandemic-impacted second quarter 2020 levels as well as increased investment in our new growth initiatives and omni-channel strategy. On a sequential basis, our G&A expense rose 0.5 million, driven by our marketing activities. Overall, we expect G&A expenses for the third quarter to be approximately 52 million as we continue to invest in our digital capabilities, our geographic expansion into new states and new products and channels to drive additional sustainable growth and improved operating leverage over the longer term. Turning to Page 12. Interest expense was $7.8 million in the second quarter of 2021 and 2.8% of our average net finance receivables. This was a 60 basis point improvement year-over-year and 1.3 million lower than in the prior year period. The improved cost of funds was driven by the lower interest rate environment and improved funding costs from our recent securitization transaction. We currently have 450 million of interest rate caps to protect us against rising rates on our variable price debt, which as of the end of the second quarter totaled 293.8 million. We have purchased a total of 350 million of interest rate caps over the past year at a one-month LIBOR strike price range of 25 to 50 basis points, including a 50 million interest rate cap in the second quarter at a strike price of 25 basis points. In the last six months, these caps have appreciated in value by $775,000. As rates fluctuate, the value of these interest rate caps will be mark-to-market value accordingly. Looking ahead, we expect interest rate expense in the third quarter to be approximately 10 million. Page 13 is a reminder of our strong funding profile. Our second quarter funded debt to equity ratio remained at a conservative 3.1 to 1. We continue to maintain a very strong balance sheet with low leverage and 139 million in loan loss reserves. As of June 30, we had 647 million of unused capacity on our credit facilities and 202 million of available liquidity, consisting of unrestricted cash and immediate availability to draw down our credit facilities. As a reminder, during the quarter, we enhanced our warehouse facility capacity to 300 million, closing on three new warehouse facilities with our current lenders, Wells Fargo and Credit Suisse, and adding JPMorgan to our roster of lenders. In July, we also closed our sixth securitization, our first five-year transaction of approximately 200 million at a weighted average coupon of 2.30%. The new securitization will be used to further reduce our cost of capital and fund our growing business. Our effective tax rate during the second quarter was 19% compared to 36% in the prior year period, better than expected from tax benefits on share-based compensation. For the second half of 2021, we expect an effective tax rate of approximately 25%. The company's Board of Directors has declared a dividend of $0.25 per common share for the third quarter of 2021. The dividend will be paid on September 15, 2021 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on August 25, 2021. In addition, during the second quarter, we repurchased 344,429 shares of our common stock at a weighted average price of $46.45 per share under our $30 million stock repurchase program announced in May 2021. We also repurchased an additional 68,437 shares at a weighted average price of $50.49 per share in July, bringing total repurchases under the program to 412,866 shares at a weighted average price of $47.12 per share through July. As Rob mentioned earlier, we are pleased to announce that our Board has approved a $20 million increase in the amount authorized under our current buyback program from $30 million to $50 million. We continue to be extremely pleased with our outstanding performance, our robust balance sheet and our prospects for growth. That concludes my remarks. And I'll now turn the call back over to Rob.