Car-Mart amends credit line

America’s Car-Mart Inc. recently amended its credit line with lenders who mostly increased their exposure with the buy here, pay here auto dealer.

Total credit availability for Car-Mart increased from $125 million set in March to $145 million as of Sept. 20, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The lending group includes a couple of local banks as well as out of state institutions.

LENDER COMMITMENTS
Bank of America: $55 million,up from $50 million
Bank of Arkansas: $40 million, up from $35 million
Commerce Bank: $15 million, unchanged
First Tennessee Bank: $20 million, up from $15 million
Arvest Bank: $15 million, up from $10 million

Car-Mart has adopted an aggressive 10% growth strategy in the past couple of years despite a somewhat challenging overall economy.

Shares of Car-Mart were trading at $47.01 Friday afternoon (Sept, 21), up more than 27% since July 1. Shares have flirted with the $50 level twice in the past month hitting a 52-week high of $49.09 one week ago.

The stock has benefited from increased earnings this past year and an aggressive stock buy back program with free cash. The stock remains fairly thinly traded with average daily volume of 42,000 shares changing hands.

Car-Mart’s market cap is $ 423.23 million, and the mean target price for the next 12 months is $48, according to analysts' consensus.