The business stories that matter, by Fortune's Colin Barr
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January 22, 2008, 4:28 pm

Americredit skids off the road

Americredit (ACF) ran smack into the tapped-out consumer Tuesday. The car lender swung to an unexpected second-quarter loss of $19 million, or 17 cents a share, from a year-ago profit of $95 million, or 74 cents a share. The Fort Worth, Texas, company said it had to build its loan losses, much as bigger lenders such as Citi (C) and Bank of America (BAC) have had to do this quarter. For its part, Americredit warned that loan charge-offs soared by more than a percentage point from year-ago levels to 6.9 percent, while accounts more than 60 days late rose to 3 percent from 2.6 percent last year. “The December quarter was challenging on many fronts, with weaker credit performance and uncertainty in the capital markets,” CEO Dan Berce said. The company cut its earnings forecast for the year ending in June by almost a dollar a share, to a range of $1.35-$1.55 a share from the previous $2.30-$2.50. The stock was halted in late action Tuesday, but it’s only fair to expect Americredit shares to skid when trading reopens this evening.

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Colin Barr covers business and finance for Fortune.com. Previously he was an editor at TheStreet.com and author of the weekly Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street column, and an editor at Dow Jones Newswires.
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