PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Steve Michaels: Yes, Brad. We did give the range, I would say, of kind of negative mid-single digits for Q3. We did not speak to Q4 as of yet from a GMV standpoint, and that — I guess as you rolling it back a little bit, as you think about Q2, we heard the same things from the retail earnings season that April was bad in May was less bad and June was less bad. So if you carry those things into the third quarter, I would expect we would participate in that less bad scenario as well. On top of that, we’ve got the lapping of the decisioning tightening from last year. And we’ve said a number of times that we believe that about 2/3 of our negative GMV pressures were from the year-over-year decisioning changes or approval rates, if you will.

As it relates to approval rates, we generally look at a trailing 4-week average because approvals are good for about 90 days. It doesn’t — it’s rare that somebody comes in on the 89th day and funds the lease, but it does take a bit for those approved leases to flow through the funded GMV. And so we look at a trailing 4-week average. And as we sit here today, we’re still not — we’re still several weeks away from getting back to parity with last year as those decision changes happened late in Q2 of last year. So still a little bit of a headwind, but certainly less of a headwind as the quarter progresses. And so that’s the decisioning and the retail environment. On top of that, I would say I’m encouraged by the receptivity and the partnerships of our retailers looking for ways to deepen our integrations and deploy tools that we have like we’ve talked about for several quarters, even the sense of urgency to get some of that stuff done before holiday of this year.

Obviously, we’re fast approaching cores for most retailers. And so time is of the essence. But to the extent we can get some of those done, we look forward to the benefit that can have in the balance of 2023, but also as we roll into ’24.

Bradley Thomas: That’s great. And then, Steve, you all talked about what you’re seeing kind of above you all in the write stack, but I was curious if you could comment a little bit more about what you’re seeing from a competitive standpoint? Are you seeing those in the lease-to-own group tightening more? Are you seeing anyone loosening? Do you feel like competitors are playing defense here? Are they getting more aggressive to trying to win business away from you? I’m just curious what you’re seeing out there right now.

Steve Michaels: Yes. I mean competition is strong as it usually is. And as we always talk about the bifurcated business, the book of business that we have with the enterprise accounts and their exclusivities along with the regionals where there may be multiple players there. I would not say that I’ve seen the evidence that our competitors are tightening from an approved rate standpoint. In fact, on the margin, it might be a little bit the other way. And so the competition remains strong and we’re out there fighting day to day.

Bradley Thomas: Thank you.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Chukumba from Loop Capital Markets.

Anthony Chukumba: Congrats on a nice quarter. So can you just provide some more color on the build product? I guess I was getting a little confused on that. What exactly is that? And when would you be rolling that out?