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what it is
Daily Journal sells court software and legal publishing products, then mixes that operating business with a very noisy bottom line.
how it gets paid
Last year Daily Journal made $88M in revenue. court case management software was the main engine at $32M, or 36% of sales.
why it's growing
Full-year revenue grew 25.4% last year, while the latest quarter was up about 10% vs. prior year—top line held up better than the bottom line.
what just happened
Latest quarter revenue was $20M, but EPS fell to -$5.79.
At a glance
B+ balance sheet — decent shape, but not bulletproof
5/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
5.9x trailing p/e — the market's not buying it — or you found a deal
26.0% return on capital — every dollar works hard here
$56.73 fy2024 eps est
xvary composite: 61/100 — average
What they do
Daily Journal sells court software and legal publishing products, then mixes that operating business with a very noisy bottom line.
Its court software sits inside a court's daily workflow. If your county runs filings, payments, and case processing through one system, ripping it out is expensive, slow, and politically painful. Daily Journal has 400 employees and products spanning eCourt, ICMS, eFile, and ePayIt, so you are not buying a single app. You are buying a system that gets sticky once a court is live.
How they make money
$88M
annual revenue · their business grew +25.4% last year
court case management software
$32M
+10.0%
electronic filing and payment services
$20M
+10.0%
newspapers and web legal notices
$18M
+25.4%
specialized information services
$10M
+10.0%
magazines and other publishing
$8M
+10.0%
The products that matter
court case management software
Journal Technologies
~$32M court software · 36% of sales
Court case management software is the largest line in the revenue bridge above. Growth is steady, not explosive—that is normal for govtech once systems are in place.
core software
local news publishing
Newspapers & Websites
~$18M newspapers & notices · 20% of sales
Newspapers and web legal notices are the legacy publishing layer. It helps fund the business but is not why the equity trades like a holding company.
legacy business
public equity holdings
Securities Portfolio
roughly $560M
This is not an operating segment, but it is the economic center of gravity. At roughly $560M against a $684M market cap, it explains why DJCO often trades like a mini holding company wearing a software badge.
most of the story
Key numbers
5.9x
trailing p/e
P/E → price relative to earnings → so what: you are paying $5.90 for each $1 of profit, which is cheap if fiscal 2024 earnings hold.
$56.73
fy2024 eps
EPS → profit per share → so what: the stock at $551.14 is leaning hard on a huge profit year.
26.0%
return on capital
Return on capital → profit earned on the money tied up in the business → so what: the company turned each $1 of capital into $0.26 of operating return.
$23M
long-term debt
Long-term debt → money owed over many years → so what: at just 3% of capital, leverage is not the main thing that can hurt you here.
Financial health
B+
strength
- balance sheet grade B+ — solid but not elite
- risk rank 2 — safer than 80% of stocks
- price stability 45 / 100
- long-term debt $23M (3% of capital)
B+ — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total return vs. market
Return history isn't available for DJCO right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
missed estimates
Latest quarter revenue was $20M, but EPS fell to -$5.79.
Revenue rose about 10% vs. prior year, while EPS swung to a large loss on a reported basis. Sales held up; investment and accounting noise moved the bottom line more than operations.
$20M
revenue (Q)
-$5.79
eps (Q · print)
5.8%
gross margin (Q)
the number that mattered
The number that mattered was -$5.79 EPS, because it reminds you this stock's earnings line can swing far harder than its revenue line.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
the #1 risk is mark-to-market pressure in the securities portfolio. for DJCO, that risk is company-specific because the portfolio is roughly $560M against a $684M market cap.
med
Portfolio value drops faster than the operating business can matter
Most of the market value sits in the securities portfolio. If those holdings fall, the stock does not have a fast-growing operating engine to absorb the hit.
A 10% decline in a roughly $560M portfolio is about $56M of value — roughly 8% of the entire $684M market cap.
med
The core business stays flat
The current feed marks both Journal Technologies and the newspaper business as flat. If that holds, the stock remains dependent on investments rather than operating compounding.
You are effectively underwriting about $70M of annual revenue with no visible acceleration in the data shown here.
med
Legacy publishing keeps shrinking in importance the wrong way
A legacy newspaper business can still generate cash, but it rarely wins a valuation premium. If it weakens while software stays flat, the operating mix gets less attractive, not more.
The feed shows $32M attached to newspapers and websites. That is large enough to matter and old enough to deserve skepticism.
med
Thin coverage means thinner price discovery
Target data is not available, and institutional holder detail is still being compiled. Small caps with sparse coverage can stay mispriced longer than you expect — in both directions.
This page already shows one data mismatch: segment totals of $88M against $70M consolidated revenue. Limited coverage raises the odds that you are working with an incomplete map.
With roughly $560M of portfolio value against a $684M market cap, your downside is tied less to newspaper ads or software contracts than to the value of the holdings sitting on the balance sheet.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
calendar
next quarterly earnings
The next report needs to answer a simple question: did revenue move meaningfully above the recent $19.54M quarterly level, or is the operating business still idling.
metric
portfolio value versus market cap
The gap between the roughly $560M securities portfolio and the $684M market cap is the cleanest shorthand for what you are really paying for.
trend
whether Journal Technologies stops being flat
If the software business starts growing from the current $56M segment base, the stock can become more than an asset-value exercise. Until then, it is mostly that.
risk
earnings predictability staying at 5/100
That score is a warning label. In human-speak: reported EPS can keep whipsawing, so a single low multiple snapshot does not tell you much by itself.
Analyst rankings
earnings predictability
5 / 100
That is near the bottom of the scale. In human-speak, analysts do not expect clean, steady earnings here.
risk rank
2
A 2 rank means lower overall risk than most stocks. Translation: the balance sheet helps, even if the earnings line does not.
balance sheet
B+
Good enough to matter, not strong enough to make the story easy. You still need the assets to hold their value.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutional ownership data for DJCO is being compiled.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
n/a
n/a
$551
current price
n/a
target midpoint · n/a from current
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