For any industry observers who question whether or not Consumer Portfolio Services grew as much as it should have during the first quarter, chairman and chief executive officer Brad Bradley reiterated the strategy the company utilizes.

During the first quarter, CPS purchased $233.9 million of new contracts, an increase of 23.2 percent compared to $189.9 million purchased during the same quarter a year earlier. The company's managed receivables totaled $1.726 billion as of March 31, an increase from $1.644 billion as of Dec. 31 and $1.295 billion as of March 31 of last year.

“Since we’re not, we never have been, and never will be, the people that chase the crowd, our business grew but not to the extent we might have thought and as what used to be the big first quarter,” Bradley said during a conference call after CPS released its Q1 financial report.

“Again we’re buying what we want to buy. We’re not buying because we have to buy. I think that’s something I’ve said in several different conference calls, and it’s certainly worth repeating,” Bradley continued according to the transcript posted by SeekingAlpha.com.

As far as the paper that already is in the portfolio, CPS indicated annualized net charge-offs for the first quarter stood at 6.64 percent of the average owned portfolio as compared to 5.54 percent for the first quarter of 2014.

The company’s delinquencies greater than 30 days (including repossession inventory) ticked up to 6.86 percent of the total owned portfolio as of March 31 as compared to 6.33 percent as of the same date a year earlier.

A year ago, CPS didn’t post a tremendous spike in originations during Q1 when tax refund money is typically available. Rather, the company’s most notable growth came during the second quarter when commercial banks and other institutions backed off a bit in their aggression for paper, according to Bradley’s assessment.

“We had very significant if not enormous growth during the summer. Whether that’ll happen again, we’re not sure,” Bradley said.

“We’re out here to grow and take advantage of the market as best as we can,” he continued. “We’re going to buy everything we know that fits our model and is what we’re supposed to buy.”

Several other times during the call, Bradley also referenced the strategy employed by Wells Fargo, which stated earlier this year it was capping how much subprime paper it was originating. Wells Fargo led the industry in overall market share of auto financing as well as for used-vehicle financing, according to Q4 data available from Experian Automotive.

“We’re big fans of them. We think they’ve done a wonderful job,” Bradley said of Wells Fargo. “They’re an enormous player and not a bad guy to be in the same neck of the woods with, and so, we can say we do what they do. That’s a very good thing. Certainly, we are trying to maintain our credit discipline and buy what we are supposed to buy rather than is buying a bunch of paper.”

Overall Q1 Performance

Consumer Portfolio Services reported earnings of $8.3 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, for its first quarter. The Q1 performance represented an increase of 23.8 percent in diluted earnings per share as the year-ago numbers came in at $6.7 million, or $0.21 per diluted share.

The company’s Q1 revenues climbed $17.8 million, or 26.2 percent, to $86.0 million, up from $68.1 million a year earlier. CPS’ total operating expenses for the first quarter also rose, surging to $71.2 million, an increase of $14.9 million or 26.4 percent. A year earlier, they were $56.4 million.

CPS’ pretax income for the first quarter came in at $14.7 million compared to pretax income of $11.8 million in the first quarter of 2014, an increase of 25.4 percent.

“We believe that we are off to a good start for 2015,” Bradley said. “We continue to maintain our credit and pricing discipline in a competitive environment and achieved our 14th consecutive quarter of increasing quarterly earnings.

“The weighted average effective coupon of the notes from our 2015-A securitization was slightly less than that of our 2014-D transaction and we continue to see improvement in our operating leverage,” he added.

“Our core operating expenses annualized as a percentage of our average managed portfolio decreased to 5.8 percent for the quarter, the lowest rate since the first quarter of 2010,” Bradley went on to say.