DAILY JOURNAL CORP (DJCO) Stock Analysis

Price updated today · SEC data refreshed 2 months ago ⓘ · Not investment advice

DAILY JOURNAL CORP

DJCO Communication Services Newspapers: Publishing or Publishing & Printing📄 SEC filings ↗ CUSIP 233912104
Valuation N/A
Long-term trend (200d) 23% above 200-day Risk 48/100 Elevated
▾ What's in the 48/100 risk score? (higher = riskier)
Fundamental health (43%) 38/100 → +16.3
leverage 20/100 · FCF trend 62/100 · Altman Z not scored — input unavailable (see Financial Health)
Smart money (short interest + insider buying) (31%) 79/100 → +24.8
Macro backdrop (VIX, curve, credit, fear/greed + week-over-week momentum) (26%) 28/100 → +7.2
Total48/100

Contributions (weight × component score) sum to the total. This near-term score now includes fundamental health (leverage, FCF trend). It excludes the the Altman Z score, whose retained-earnings input this filer does not report separately, which relies on a proxied (estimated) input. See the Financial Health section for the full balance-sheet read.

💵 Price $603.33 · today 📄 Financials SEC EDGAR · refreshed 2 months ago
📍 START HERE

How to read DJCO

We are not publishing an intrinsic value for this one — the section below says exactly why. Everything on this page that comes straight from the filings and the tape is still here; treat the missing valuation as a known gap, not as a verdict on the business.

Where to start — the sections that matter most for this stock
  1. 1 Reported earnings & margins ↓
    What the company actually reported — unaffected by the valuation being held.
  2. 2 Balance sheet & book value ↓
    Assets, liabilities and equity as filed.
  3. 3 Who's selling & betting against it ↓
    Insider and short-interest behaviour needs no valuation model.
Or — what are you trying to decide?
One rule first: never trade out of fear — and that includes the fear of missing out. A stock up 10% a day for three days is excitement, not data. If you can't point to the evidence behind a trade, you're more likely to lose. So whichever of these you are, check the data below before you act.
🚀
"It's surging — should I chase it?"
The momentum / FOMO trade. Before you chase, see whether the people who know it best are quietly selling into the rally.
🏷️
"Is it a cheap bargain?"
The deep-value trade. How far below assets and our value it trades — and whether it's cheap for a reason.
ⓘ A share-count quirk blocked the per-share math

The share count we read for DJCO looks wrong — common for multi-class / founder-controlled filers that report shares per share-class. That makes per-share figures (including intrinsic value) misleading, so we suppressed them. The company's total financials below are sound.

What to use instead: Lean on the totals — revenue, net income, cash flow — and the balance sheet. Multi-class share counts are being corrected; once fixed, the per-share valuation returns automatically.

This note is only about the single DCF fair-value number — DJCO's full financial statements, health scores, and written analysis are all below.

ⓘ Why does DJCO trade at $603.33?

DAILY JOURNAL CORP has 1.4 million shares outstanding. At $603.33 per share, the market values all outstanding DJCO equity at $831 million. That's market capitalization, not enterprise value — enterprise value also accounts for debt and cash (DJCO carries little or no debt, so the two are close here). The share price by itself tells you almost nothing — a company can pick any share price by splitting or issuing more shares. What matters is the total value (Market Cap?Market Cap — The total dollar value the market is assigning to the entire company.
Why it matters: This is the number that actually matters when comparing companies. Two companies with the same business but different share counts have the same market cap.
Reference: Mega cap >$200B · Large $10–200B · Mid $2–10B · Small $300M–2B · Micro <$300M
Full explanation →) compared to what the business actually produces. This page values DJCO in Per Share?Per Share — A company-level figure divided by total shares — what one share represents.
Why it matters: Per-share metrics are the only way to fairly compare two companies with different share counts.
Full explanation → economics — what each share represents of the underlying business. Play with the share-price calculator on the homepage →

Loading insider & short-seller data…
PEER BASKET — LIMITED COMPARABLES

⚠ We found only 1 genuine same-industry (Newspapers: Publishing or Publishing & Printing) comparable — fewer than the 4 we require for a reliable median. The 8 names in the table below therefore include 7 broader Communication Services names marked fallback, whose business models and margins differ — which is why any median below is computed over that wider set, not over true comparables. So we do not derive a peer-implied share value here. Read the multiples as rough context only.

How does DJCO stack up against its closest peers?

Ideally we compare DJCO only to same-industry peers, but too few exist in our universe right now, so the basket below mixes in broader-sector names. Treat the multiples as rough context, not a valuation. For a leveraged business, EV/EBIT and FCF yield (both in the table) are usually more reliable than EV/Sales, because revenue multiples ignore differences in margins and debt.

▾ What's "EV / Sales" in plain English?

EV (Enterprise Value) = market cap + total debt − cash. It's "what you'd pay to buy the entire company outright" — you pay the market cap to shareholders and take over their debt, but you keep their cash. EV is fairer than market cap alone because it includes the debt the new owner inherits.

EV / Sales = EV ÷ annual revenue. So "2.5×" means investors pay $2.50 of enterprise value per $1 of yearly sales. Higher = market is paying more per dollar of sales (usually because they expect future growth or fat margins).

p25 / median / p75 are the 25th, 50th (middle), and 75th percentile of the peers' multiples. Half the peers fall between p25 and p75. The median (p50) is the typical peer — that's the benchmark we compare to.

What peers trade at (p25 / median / p75)
EV / Sales?EV / Sales — For every $1 of yearly revenue, this is how many dollars investors pay to own the whole business (including debt).
Why it matters: Works for pre-profit growth companies where P/E and FCF don't apply. The most apples-to-apples cross-company multiple because it ignores accounting choices.
Reference: 1–3x for mature companies · 4–10x for software/SaaS · 10–20x for hypergrowth · >20x is rare and demanding
Full explanation →		 0.5x / 1.9x / 6.7x
EV / EBIT?EV / EBITDA — Enterprise value divided by earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization.
Why it matters: A classic "what would a private buyer pay" multiple — used in M&A. Strips out tax and capital-structure noise.
Reference: 8–12x for mature businesses · 15–25x for growth · Below 5x often signals distress
Full explanation →		 5.7x / 7.7x / 30.4x

Bold middle number = median peer. Half the peers trade above it, half below. Computed over 8 peers (broad — see caveat); implausible multiples excluded.

What DJCO would be worth at the median peer's multiple
We're not showing a peer-implied price for DJCO: with only 1 genuine same-industry comparable, a median built partly from broader-sector names would be misleading. Lean on the DCF above; use the multiples table only as loose context.

⚠️ Important caveat: peer multiples only work if the peers are genuinely comparable. Always check the peer list below — if the auto-picker grabbed micro-caps or unrelated businesses, the comparison is noise. A medical-device giant priced against tiny biotech startups won't produce a useful signal.

▾ View peer list (8)
Ticker Company Industry Mcap EV/Sales EV/GP EV/EBIT FCF Yield
TDAY USA TODAY Co., Inc. Newspapers: Publishing or $1.1B 0.5x — — 4.8%
SCHL SCHOLASTIC CORP Books: Publishing or Publi ·fallback $846M 0.7x — 69.4x 10.3%
SHEN SHENANDOAH TELECOMMUNICATIONS CO/V Telecommunications ·fallback $882M 4.3x — — 8.8%
SPIR Spire Global, Inc. Telecom Services ·fallback $730M 10.2x 25.0x — 0.6%
SBGI Sinclair, Inc. Television Broadcasting St ·fallback $956M 0.3x — 5.7x 6.7%
RSVR Reservoir Media, Inc. Entertainment & Recreation ·fallback $677M 6.7x — 30.4x 4.9%
PRSU Pursuit Attractions & Hospitality, Entertainment & Recreation ·fallback $1.2B 2.9x — — 4.6%
ZD ZIFF DAVIS, INC. Telegraph & Other Message ·fallback $534M 1.0x — 7.7x 37.2%
FINANCIAL HEALTH SCREENS

Quality & solvency checks

Cheap stocks can be cheap for a reason. These screens warn when a low valuation comes paired with structural fragility.

Altman Z-Score?Altman Z-Score — A bankruptcy-risk score combining 5 financial ratios into one number. Predictive of bankruptcy within 2 years.
Why it matters: Cheap-looking stocks (low P/E or P/B) often have low Z-scores because the market knows the company is dying. Z-score warns you before you fall into a value trap.
Reference: > 3.0 = safe zone · 1.81–3.0 = grey zone · < 1.81 = distress zone
Full explanation →
n/a
Not reliably computable

We can't produce a trustworthy Altman Z here: retained earnings weren't separately reported in our data, so a core input would have to be fabricated. Rather than show a categorical "distress" verdict from an invented number, we mark it unavailable. Judge financial health from the leverage, cash position, and the measurable Piotroski checks instead.

Piotroski checks
6 passed · 2 failed · 1 n/a
Partial result, not a standard F-score: 6 of 8 measurable checks passed. 1 of the 9 standard checks couldn't be measured, so this is scored out of 8, not 9 — it isn't comparable to a published F-score.
▾ The checks — what passed, what didn't (and what we couldn't measure)
  • ✓ Positive net income
    Net income $112.1M in the latest year.
  • ✓ Positive operating cash flow
    Operating cash flow $13.3M (was -$0.1M the prior year).
  • ✗ Cash flow backs up reported profit
    Operating cash flow $13.3M vs net income $112.1M.
    Why this matters: When cash generated exceeds reported earnings, profits are high-quality (not propped up by accruals or one-time items).
  • ✓ Return on assets improving
    Return on assets 20.5% vs 19.3% a year ago.
  • ✓ Debt load (vs assets)
    Long-term debt is 0.0% of assets vs 0.0% a year ago ($0.0M now).
  • ✓ Short-term liquidity (current ratio)
    Current ratio 13.89x vs 10.26x a year ago.
  • ✓ Share count (dilution)
    Share count held roughly flat (1.4M → 1.4M year-over-year).
  • · Pricing power (gross margin) (n/a — data not reported; not scored)
  • ✗ Sales per asset (asset turnover)
    Asset turnover 0.16x vs 0.17x a year ago.
    Why this matters: Asset turnover measures how much revenue each dollar of assets generates. Rising = more productive use of the asset base.

Missing data is never counted as a pass or a fail — it's shown as n/a and excluded from the denominator. Each check compares the company against its own prior year.

INTERACTIVE — TWEAK YOUR ASSUMPTIONS

What if you assume different inputs?

Here's where we land — and what happens if you change the assumptions. Drag the sliders to set your own Discount Rate?Discount Rate — The annual return you demand for taking single-stock risk instead of buying a safe Treasury or index fund.
Why it matters: Higher discount rate = stricter valuation (a stock has to produce more cash to be worth holding). Lower = more generous.
Reference: 8–12% is standard · 9–10% matches S&P 500 historical return · Below 7% is illogical for single-stock risk
Full explanation → (the annual return you demand for single-stock risk) and terminal growth; the value updates live so you can see whether the stock looks cheaper or richer. The discount rate starts at 10.0%, the figure our model used for DJCO. Open Advanced to also change beta, growth and the rate path.

Note: no headline intrinsic value is published for this stock (the valuation is held for a data-quality reason — see the notes above). The calculator below is a what-if tool: the values it produces are your assumptions played out, not our estimate.

4.5% (risk-free)9-10% normal18% (deep-risk)
0%2-3% (GDP)5% (rarely sustainable)

A full intrinsic value isn't shown for DJCO because the valuation is currently held for a data-quality reason (see the guardrail notes above). The reverse-DCF reading still works — it needs only the price and cash flow — but we won't publish a forward value until the underlying data passes our checks.

For comparison — the revenue growth today's price already assumes
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⚙ Advanced — tinker with every input (beta, growth, rate path, margin → full intrinsic value)
Where the discount rate comes from — discount rate = risk-free + beta × equity-risk-premium
What you'd earn risk-free from government bonds — the floor under every other rate. Slide it down to model the market expecting rate cuts (value rises); up for higher-for-longer.
The extra yearly return investors demand for owning stocks instead of safe bonds — the price of risk. History runs ~4.5–6.5%; we default to 5.5% (slightly conservative). It's an estimate, not a law — lower it if you think equities are less risky than that.
Inflation quietly eats returns: a 9% gain at 3% inflation is only ~6% in real purchasing power. The intrinsic value above is already in today's dollars (a nominal DCF cancels inflation out of both growth and the discount rate), so this doesn't change the value — it shows what's left of your return after the tax.
Higher beta → higher discount rate (sets the rate above). 1.0 = moves with the market.
What you think DJCO can grow revenue for ~5 years, then fades to terminal.
For a pre-profit company: the % of revenue that eventually becomes free cash flow once mature. (Our published value uses the sector norm.)
All inputs start at the values our model used.

    Copy shareable link to this scenario →

    Price$603.33
    Model IVNot applicable — DCF couldn't price this stock. See Reverse DCF and Football Field below.

    A standard discounted cash flow?DCF — Discounted Cash Flow — sums up all future cash a business will produce, adjusted for the fact that future dollars are worth less than dollars today.
    Why it matters: It is the most fundamentally honest valuation method when applicable — but only works for companies with predictable, positive cash flow.
    Reference: Best for: mature, profitable businesses. Fails for: pre-profit growth, banks, REITs.
    Full explanation →     valuation is not meaningful for Daily Journal Corp due to its complex asset base and the market likely pricing in optionality and narrative catalysts beyond trailing cash flows. While revenue is growing at 15.1%/yr and operating cash flow is positive, the market appears to be focused on the value of its investment portfolio and potential for margin expansion. The #1 quantifiable risk is its low franchise/durability score of 1/5, indicating limited competitive advantages.

    ⚠️ Cyclical sector: using normalized cash flow (median OCF minus estimated maintenance capex).

    As of 2 months ago

    ANATOMY

    Anatomy of a share

    What you're buying per share. Bars are at the same scale so you can see the relative size of revenue, costs, cash flow, and debt — not just read them in a table.

    DJCO DAILY JOURNAL CORP stock anatomy showing per-share revenue, operating expenses, free cash flow, and debt
    127.9%
    profit
    Where each $1 of revenue goes
    Net profit — 127.9¢ of every dollar ($81.41/sh — latest fiscal-year net income per share)
    Costs & taxes — -27.9¢ (on $63.67 revenue/sh)
    Net margin = net income ÷ revenue (most recent fiscal year).
    Plain English: $603/share buys $63.67 of revenue per share per year, generates $81.41 of net income per current share, and $9.57 of free cash flow per share. Each share carries $0.00 of debt.
    What's free cash flow / what do these mean?

    Revenue per share — how much the business earns from customers, divided by the number of shares outstanding. Top of the income statement.

    Earnings per share — profit left after operating costs, interest, and taxes, per share. Two versions appear on this page and are not interchangeable: GAAP diluted EPS uses the company's weighted-average diluted share count during the reporting period (this is the "earnings" in "price-to-earnings"); net income per current share divides annual net income by today's share count. They differ whenever the share count has changed.

    Owner-earnings free cash flow per share — the cash the business produces for shareholders. Savng's owner-earnings FCF subtracts capital expenditures and stock-based compensation from operating cash flow (SBC is a real dilution cost even though it's non-cash). This is deliberately more conservative than "standard" FCF, which subtracts only capital expenditures — so our figure is lower than the headline FCF you'll see elsewhere. FCF funds dividends, buybacks, debt repayment, and acquisitions; a company can report positive earnings yet negative FCF.

    Debt per share — total interest-bearing borrowings divided by shares. High debt-per-share next to thin FCF-per-share is a fragility signal.

    THE KEY DEBATE

    What you actually need to decide

    Every stock price is a disagreement. Here's the single thing that must go right for the bulls, the single thing that breaks the thesis, and the concrete signposts to watch so you can update your view as real results arrive.

    🐂 The Bull Case
    The value of the company's investment portfolio must continue to appreciate significantly, and its publishing operations must maintain or grow current profitability to justify the current valuation.
    🐻 The Bear Case
    The franchise/durability score of 1/5 indicates a lack of strong competitive advantages, implying that sustained profitability and growth in its core publishing business could be challenged.
    📌 Signposts to watch — update your view as these print
    • Performance of its marketable securities portfolio
    • Trends in subscription and advertising revenue
    • Operating cash flow generation in future quarters
    MOMENTUM — WHAT'S GETTING BETTER & WORSE

    The trend, in plain numbers (2024 → 2025)

    Straight from the financial statements — no model, no opinion. For a small or unprofitable company, the direction of these numbers usually tells you more than any single valuation.

    ✅ Improving
    • Revenue grew +25% to $87.7M.
    • Free cash flow turned positive at $13.2M.
    • Net income grew +44% to $112.1M.
    ⚠ Worsening

    Nothing clearly worsening year-over-year.

    WHO

    Management & Leadership

    Charles Munger served as Chairman of the Daily Journal Corp. until his passing in late 2023, having been a long-standing figure. Gerald L. Salzman is the current CEO and has been with the company for many years, overseeing its operations and strategic direction.

    Gerald L. Salzman
    Chief Executive Officer
    Charles T. Munger
    Former Chairman (Deceased)
    WHAT

    What They Make

    Daily Journal Corp. publishes newspapers and websites covering legal and real estate news, primarily serving legal professionals and real estate industries. It also has a significant portfolio of marketable securities.

    End Markets

    Legal Information ServicesReal Estate Information ServicesInvestment Management

    Revenue Drivers

    Subscription revenue from publications
    Advertising revenue
    Investment gains (though not core operating revenue)
    Market Cap: 831.1MBeta: 1.13
    WHY

    Why Is It Priced Like This?

    Why Customers Pay

    Specialized legal and real estate news
    Access to public record information
    Platform for legal notices and advertising
    No discounted-cash-flow value for this filer We aren't publishing a discounted-cash-flow value here: the model's output failed our plausibility checks, so showing it would imply more precision than we have.

    What we use instead: earnings (P/E, EV/EBIT), book value (P/B) — computed from the figures this company does report, shown in the sections below. Those numbers are unaffected by the missing cash-flow data.

    The market is likely pricing DJCO based on the value of its investment portfolio, which includes significant holdings in public companies, and expectations for future growth in its niche publishing business. The price is 16.4x the model's intrinsic value?Intrinsic Value — Our DCF model's estimate of what each share is mathematically worth based on projected cash flows.
    Why it matters: Compare to current price. Below IV = potentially undervalued. Above IV = priced for growth that must actually happen.
    Reference: Model-derived; quality depends on data and assumptions.
    Full explanation →    , suggesting investors are betting on optionality, narrative catalysts, or margin expansion beyond what trailing cash flows support, despite positive operating cash flow.

    HOW

    Business Model & Valuation

    How They Make Money

    Subscription revenue from publications
    Advertising revenue
    Investment gains (though not core operating revenue)

    Normalized FCF

    Cyclical/commodity sector (Newspapers: Publishing or Publishing & Printing): normalized FCF uses 5-year median to smooth peak/trough distortions.

    Show advanced inputs
    RevenueGrowth15.1%
    HistoricalFcfGrowth1.012
    SectorDefault8.0%
    BestEstimate13.0%
    Methodblend(70% revenue_cagr, 30% sector)
    GrowthBasistotal

    What this model does NOT do: this is a consolidated owner-earnings FCF model. Standalone segment assumptions: none. It does not project its revenue segments independently; their combined effect is embedded in the historical revenue and cash-flow trend the model extrapolates. The calculator above can only approximate a segment's impact through the single consolidated growth rate — it cannot model any one line separately. For a true segment-level view, build a separate model from the company's segment disclosures.

    WHEN

    Maturity & Competitive Position

    Mature compounder

    Moat Signals

    Niche market specialization
    Established brand in legal publishing
    Long-term investment strategy

    Revenue is growing at 15.1%/yr over 4 years, from $50M to $88M.

    WHERE

    Geography & Markets

    Daily Journal Corp. primarily operates within the United States, with its publications focused on specific regional legal and real estate markets. Exact geographic segment splits are not available in current filings.

    Geographic Risks

    Concentration risk in its investment portfolio
    Declining print media readership
    SIGNALS

    Market Signals

    These are timing signals, not value signals — they describe the stock's recent price behavior, not what the business is worth. Use them for the "the thesis looks good, but is now the moment?" question. Each tile below explains what it's saying.

    Model neutral, tape bullish
    RSI?RSI — Relative Strength Index — a 0-100 momentum gauge. Above 70 = overbought; below 30 = oversold.
    Why it matters: Short-term contrarian indicator. Extreme readings often precede mean reversion, though not always.
    Reference: 30–70 normal · >70 overbought · <30 oversold
    Full explanation →     (14)    58.5NeutralMomentum is balanced — neither overbought nor oversold.
    MACD?MACD — Moving Average Convergence Divergence — compares a fast and a slow price trend to gauge momentum direction.
    Why it matters: When the fast line crosses above the slow line, short-term momentum is turning up; below, turning down. A timing cue, not a value signal.
    Reference: Line above signal = bullish momentum · below = bearish
    Full explanation →    BullishLine above signalThe fast trend is above the slow trend — short-term momentum is currently upward.
    50-Day Average$503.91Price above (+19.7%)Price above its 50-day average = near-term uptrend.
    200-Day Average$490.99Price aboveThe 200-day line is the long-term trend divider — above it is generally considered a bull market for the stock.
    50 vs 200 CrossGolden50-day above 200-dayA "golden cross" — the medium trend has overtaken the long trend (often read as bullish).

    Technicals describe price, not the business. A great company can have a "bearish" tape (a buying chance) and a weak one a "bullish" tape (a trap). Pair these with the valuation and health sections above.

    QUALITY

    Data Quality & Risk Flags (6 notes — click to expand/collapse)
    Guardrail Notes (6)
    • Cyclical sector: using normalized cash flow (median OCF minus estimated maintenance capex).
    • Median OCF: $3.29M, est. maintenance capex: $657,200, normalized FCF: $2.63M.
    • Price is 16.4x model IV - market may be pricing optionality, narrative catalysts, or margin expansion beyond what trailing cash flows support.
    • Illiquidity discount 7% applied (small/micro-cap — harder to exit, demand a margin).
    • Extreme valuation (P/IV 17.6410x, IV $29.31 vs price $517.12); output dominated by data/units issue (often a multi-class share-count mismatch). Suppressed.
    • DATA UNAVAILABLE: per-share values suppressed due to missing/unreliable shares data.
    FINANCIALS

    Financial Statements (5-year tables — click to expand)

    From DAILY JOURNAL CORP's SEC filings (EDGAR).

    Income (5yr)

    YearRevenueNet IncomeEPS
    202587.7M112.1M$81.41
    202469.9M78.1M$56.73
    202367.7M21.5M$15.58
    202254.0M-21.5M$-54.81
    202149.9M112.9M$81.77

    Cash Flow (5yr)

    YearOperating CFCapEx− SBC & adj.Free Cash Flow
    2025 13.3M 8,000 140,000 13.2M
    2024 -89,000 49,000 202,000 -340,000
    2023 15.1M 86,000 — 15.0M
    2022 -5.3M 36,000 — -5.3M
    2021 3.3M 29,000 — 3.3M

    How we define FCF: operating cash flow − capital expenditure − stock-based compensation (owner-earnings basis — SBC is a real cost to shareholders even though it's non-cash). Latest year: 13.3M − 8,000 − 140,000 (SBC & adj.) = 13.2M. This is the same owner-earnings FCF definition the valuation model uses, though the DCF's starting value is a normalized multi-year median, not this single year.

    Balance Sheet

    Total Assets548.1M
    Total Liabilities157.1M
    Equity391.1M
    PG
    Methodology by Pouyan Golshani, MD — founder of Gighz. Savng was built by a physician for busy professionals: every number on this page comes from SEC filings (EDGAR) and FINRA data through transparent, rules-based models — no analyst opinions, no hidden inputs. How we calculate every number →
    ⚠️ Not investment advice. Automated model outputs, last refreshed May 30, 2026 (the analysis-refresh date, not the latest filing period). All models have blind spots. Full disclaimer →
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