UPDATE 2-America's Car-Mart Q1 beats market; shares jump

* Q1 EPS $0.60 vs St. view $0.41

* Q1 rev up 11 pct to $83.8 mln vs St. view $78.0 mln

* Shares touch 52-week high

(Recasts; adds details, share movement)

Sept 1 (Reuters) - Auto retailer and financer America's Car-Mart Inc (CRMT.O) posted better-than-expected quarterly results, helped by strong same store sales and lower credit losses, sending its shares up 14 percent to a new 52-week high.

The company continued to benefit from growing demand as credit-strapped consumers opt for used vehicles rather than new ones.

On a conference call with analysts, the company said it was continuing to see steady improvements in all of its businesses.

America's Car-Mart first-quarter net income rose 32 percent to $7 million, or 60 cents a share, from $5.3 million, or 45 cents a share, a year ago.

Revenue rose about 11 percent to $83.8 million.

Analysts were expecting earnings of 41 cents a share, before items, on revenue of $78.0 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

During the quarter, same store sales rose 8.5 percent and active customer base grew 5 percent to over 44,000.

The company, which helps people with limited credit histories to buy used cars, said provision for credit losses was 19.5 percent of sales compared with 20.9 percent in the year-ago period.

Chief Financial Officer Jeff Williams said average selling price was relatively flat compared with the prior year's quarter and down 1.6 percent sequentially.

The company said it will continue to focus on holding down purchase costs and expects to see gross margin of around 43 percent going forward.

Gross margin in the first quarter was slightly over 44 percent.

Shares of the company were up $2.20 at $22.80 Tuesday on Nasdaq. They touched a year-high of $23.46 earlier in the session. (Reporting by A.Ananthalakshmi in Bangalore; Editing by Ratul Ray Chaudhuri)