DAILY JOURNAL CORPORATION

DJCO · Materials · $1.1B mkt cap · FY2025 filings · Narrow moat ·

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Narrow moat
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The five investor questions

Revenue & EPS trend85

2010–2025: revenue 37580000.00 to 87700000.00, increasing; diluted EPS 5.56 to 81.41, increasing. 12 fiscal years were not jointly reported; CAGR uses the full 15-year elapsed span.

Pricing power

Not enough years of gross-margin data to score pricing power.

Returns on capital0

Median ROIC -0.2%, above the 12% hurdle in 0% of years.

Balance-sheet safety100

Net cash position — no leverage risk.

Capital discipline60

Owner earnings +71.3%/yr, share count growing (dilution).

The pricingPower component abstained: Not enough years of gross-margin data to score pricing power. The other four 20% weights were renormalized over the scored 80%.

Price vs. owner-earnings value range

Above estimateBelow estimate
24% above high estimate
Owner earnings (normalized)
$78.3M
Value range / share
$482.17–$482.17
Conservative high estimate / share
$482.17
Recent price
$596.40
Price vs. high estimate
24% above high estimate

Conservative range under moat-index@2.0.0: low end 11.1×, high end capped at 18×; 9% discount rate; high-end growth 0% (capped at 4%) using min(5y revenue CAGR, 5y diluted-EPS CAGR), clamped to 0%–4%; maintenance capex uses min(capex, D&A); abstain when D&A is unavailable. This is a disclosed model range, not intrinsic value as fact.

17 years of fundamentals

The business, in plain English

Across the filed record, revenue grew from $37.6M (FY2010) to $87.7M (FY2025) — about 5.8% a year compounded over 15 years.

It earned 1.9% on invested capital in FY2025, with a median of 0.8% across 16 filed years. The Returns on Capital filter above scores it 0/100.

The balance sheet carried $47000 of total debt in FY2015. Balance-Sheet Safety scores it 100/100.

The share count rose 30.7% between FY2010 and FY2025 — existing owners have been diluted over the record. Capital Discipline scores it 60/100.

This breakdown is generated from the filed numbers and sub-scores above — no outside narrative, no estimates. Where a filing doesn’t disclose an input, the sentence that would need it is omitted instead of guessed.

FY2009–FY2025 · 17 fiscal years, normalized from DJCO’s SEC filings

RevenueSales, as filed$87.7M FY2025
$0$50M2009201520212025
Gross marginRevenue kept after cost of goods

Not disclosed in DJCO’s filings for these years — we don’t estimate it.

Return on invested capitalOperating profit on the capital employed1.9% FY2025
−10%0%10%2009201520212025
Owner earningsCash an owner could take out$112.4M FY2025
$0$100M2009201520212025

Gaps in a line mean that item isn’t in DJCO’s filings for that year — the series is never interpolated or estimated. The Table view lists every filed value, including operating and net margins, total debt, and share count.

Moat Score history

8 logged readings since Jul 17, 2026 · append-only, never rewritten

Moat Score over timeLast scored reading of each day, on the 0–100 scale61.2 / 100
0406080100WideNarrowShallowNo moatJul 20, 2026Jul 21, 2026

Tier changesSame-methodology crossings of the Wide / Narrow / Shallow bars

  1. Methodology upgraded moat-index@1.2.0tomoat-index@2.0.0 — readings across versions aren’t comparedJul 20, 2026

Scores are logged append-only and never overwritten — this record can’t be backfilled, which is exactly why it’s worth keeping.

Track record

How DAILY JOURNAL CORPORATION’s moat rated in each of the years we can reconstruct from its filings — scored only on what was knowable at the time — and what its price and returns did afterward. The score never saw a price; the two are joined only in hindsight, for education, not as a signal.

As-of scores 20112025, one methodology version · reconstructed from filings on file each Dec 31 — never with hindsight

As-of Moat Score (dot colored by tier)Indexed price (total-return (dividends reinvested))Rated Wide-moat that year

How to read this: each dot is what the engine would have scored DJCO on that December 31; the line below is its total-return price path (dividends reinvested) in the years since.

0406080100WideNarrowShallowNo moatAs-of Moat Score100200500Indexed price · log scale (2012 = 100)201120142017202020232026

Two tracks, one timeline: the score has its own 0–100 scale (top), the price its own 100-based scale (bottom) — never a shared axis. The price path is a total-return (dividends reinvested) index built from the same data the forward returns use; gaps in the score line are years with no reconstructed rating (see the table for why). The Table view carries every value.

What followed, in the years it rated Wide

In the reconstructed history shown, DJCO did not rate Wide-moat in any year, so there is no wide-moat track record to report. That absence is itself the honest answer — we don’t manufacture a comparison where the rating never earned one.

Materials context

#49 of 304 scored Materials companies, ranked by Moat Score.

Nearest peers by Moat Score

  1. #47LPX LOUISIANA-PACIFIC CORPORATION62.2 out of 100, Narrow moatNarrow moat
  2. #48SNBRQ SLEEP NUMBER CORPORATION61.8 out of 100, Narrow moatNarrow moat
  3. #50TPR Tapestry, Inc.61.2 out of 100, Narrow moatNarrow moat
  4. #51EGY VAALCO ENERGY INC /DE/60.6 out of 100, Narrow moatNarrow moat

Compare DJCO with its nearest peersAll Materials companies on the Index →

Common questions about DJCO

Does DAILY JOURNAL CORPORATION have an economic moat?
Based on its FY2025 SEC filings, the Moat Index scores DAILY JOURNAL CORPORATION (DJCO) 61.2 out of 100 — a Narrow moat. The five questions behind that score begin at 20% each; if exactly one genuinely lacks data, the other four weights are renormalized and disclosed. revenue and EPS trend 85, pricing power not measurable from the filings, returns on capital 0, balance-sheet safety 100, capital discipline 60.
Is DJCO trading below the conservative owner-earnings estimate?
The owner-earnings value range is $482.17–$482.17 per share. It capitalizes normalized owner earnings at a 9% rate; the low end assumes 0% growth and the high end uses 0% growth, capped at 4% and 18×. Versus a recent price of $596.40, that is 24% above high estimate relative to the high estimate. This is a conservative educational estimate from primary SEC filings, not intrinsic value as a fact or investment advice.
How has DJCO's Moat Score changed over time?
The record logs 8 readings since Jul 17, 2026; the latest reads 61.2 out of 100 (narrow moat). No tier changes on record yet. (A methodology upgrade on Jul 20, 2026 re-based the score; readings across engine versions aren't compared.) The history is append-only — readings are only ever added, never rewritten.