LIQUIDITY SERVICES, INC
LQDT · Technology · $1.6B mkt cap · FY2025 filings · · Shallow moat ·
Doesn't clear the bar
The five investor questions
2021–2025 (latest 5 aligned FYs; v3 window cap 5): revenue $258M to $477M, increasing; diluted EPS 1.45 to 0.87, decreasing.
Median gross margin 51.1% over 10y, stable.
Median ROIC 14.1%, above the 12% hurdle in 50% of years.
Net cash position — no leverage risk.
Owner earnings changed -12.6%/yr over up to the ten most recent annual observations.
Price vs. value if growth stopped today
A cautious baseline, not a price target: what the shares may support if normalized owner earnings simply hold steady.
- $30.7M
- $9.14
- $9.14
- $42.10
- 361% above value if growth stopped today
What today’s price assumes: owner earnings growing ~36%/yr over 5 years. The zero-growth estimate assumes owner earnings stay flat (0% growth).
How to read this
We solve for the constant annual change in owner earnings that would make the five-year zero-growth estimate equal today’s price. This keeps the existing model inputs and calculation unchanged; it is an expectations lens, not a forecast.
This zero-growth estimate assumes trailing owner earnings persist — unreliable for declining businesses. The recent FY revenue series does not trigger the three-consecutive-declines flag.
Among the current top-score group, the median current price is 235% above the zero-growth estimate across 49 of the current top 50 companies by Moat Score with both values.
Score records captured Sep 7, 2026.
Exactly which 50 companies?
FTNT, META, MEDP, IBEX, MSFT, GOOG, LULU, ANF, IDXX, TXRH, FHI, QLYS, FFIV, ADBE, LLY, MANH, VEEV, RMD, GRMN, PCTY, EAT, UI, SSD, MNST, DOCS, LRCX, MCO, CPRT, NTAP, NVDA, CORT, SFM, MPTI, ULTA, SN, ROL, CTAS, PAYC, IRMD, INTU, DECK, MORN, JKHY, TPR, LGCY, DAL, GWW, ISRG, MPWR, LOPE
Missing a usable price or zero-growth estimate: ANF.
Model details under moat-index@3.0.0: zero-growth multiple 11.1×, capped-growth comparison at no more than 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.
18 years of fundamentals
The business, in plain English
LIQUIDITY SERVICES, INC booked $477M of revenue in FY2025 in the Technology sector and kept 43.8% of it as gross profit — a solid-margin business by that measure. After every other cost, 5.9% of each revenue dollar reached the bottom line.
Across the filed record, revenue grew from $219M (FY2009) to $477M (FY2025) — about 5.0% a year compounded over 16 years.
It earned 87.2% on invested capital in the latest filed year, FY2025. Across the full 17-year measurable filed record, median ROIC was 20.1%. Over the v3 recent window (10 measurable filed years), median ROIC was 14.1%. The Returns on Capital filter above scores it 57/100.
LQDT's latest filed year, FY2025, doesn't disclose total debt in a form the methodology can use, so current leverage is treated as unmeasured — never assumed to be zero.
Put together: Balance-Sheet Safety is the strongest of the five filters (100/100) and Capital Allocation the weakest (0/100), which is how LQDT lands at 59/100 — a Shallow moat.
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.
Exact FY and FY-1 financing invested-capital inputs are required.
Exact FY and FY-1 financing invested-capital inputs are required.
The explained ROIC gaps have filed inputs but no meaningful positive invested-capital denominator. Other gaps mean the item is not in the 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.
Visual explainers
The filing-backed explainer service is temporarily unavailable, so no partial or guessed chart is shown.
Moat Score history
Breaks in the line mark methodology or normalizer upgrades — readings across versions aren’t compared, so a level shift there isn’t a change in the business.
Tier changesSame-methodology and same-normalizer crossings of the Wide / Narrow / Shallow bars
- Normalizer upgraded unstamped (version unknown)tomoat-xbrl-normalizer@1.1.0 — readings across versions aren’t comparedJul 26, 2026
- Methodology upgraded moat-index@2.0.0tomoat-index@3.0.0 — readings across versions aren’t comparedJul 23, 2026
- 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 cannot be reconstructed retroactively, which is exactly why it’s worth keeping.
Insider activity
Form 4 reports mix P/S market or private transactions with compensation-plan mechanics. Activity casually described as “insider selling” can include compensation mechanics; awards, tax withholding, and option exercises are shown by their exact filed class here, never collapsed into “Bought” or “Sold.”
These are disclosed filing facts and arithmetic aggregates, not a signal or verdict.
The insider-filing service is temporarily unavailable, so no partial or guessed answer is shown for LQDT.
Track record
How LIQUIDITY SERVICES, INC’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.
How to read this: each dot is what the engine would have scored LQDT on that December 31; the line below is its total-return price path (dividends reinvested) in the years since.
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 4 years LQDT rated Wide-moat (2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014), the median forward total return that followed — measured only after each year’s filings were public — was:
- 1 year −32% vs the S&P 500’s 13% (price basis) · median over 4 years
- 3 years −67% vs the S&P 500’s 34% (price basis) · median over 4 years
- 5 years −72% vs the S&P 500’s 68% (price basis) · median over 4 years
These are medians computed from the data, not a claim about any one year. The company figures are total returns (dividends reinvested); the S&P 500 is the price-only ^GSPC index, which excludes dividends and so understates the index — the gap flatters the company. A quality rating is not a return forecast, and past returns don’t predict future ones. Educational only, not investment advice.
Technology context
#201 of 749 scored Technology companies, ranked by Moat Score.
Nearest peers by Moat Score
- #199VERX Vertex, Inc.59.6 out of 100, Shallow moatShallow moat
- #200HQY HEALTHEQUITY, INC.59.4 out of 100, Shallow moatShallow moat
- #202DOCU DOCUSIGN, INC.59.2 out of 100, Shallow moatShallow moat
- #203VRT Vertiv Holdings Co59.2 out of 100, Shallow moatShallow moat
Compare LQDT with its nearest peers →All Technology companies on the Index →
Common questions about LQDT
- Does LIQUIDITY SERVICES, INC have an economic moat?
- Based on its FY2025 SEC filings, the Moat Index scores LIQUIDITY SERVICES, INC (LQDT) 59.3 out of 100 — a Shallow 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 60, pricing power 80, returns on capital 57, balance-sheet safety 100, capital allocation 0.
- Is LQDT trading below the conservative owner-earnings estimate?
- The value if growth stopped today — a zero-growth baseline — is $9.14 per share. It capitalizes normalized owner earnings at a 9% rate and assumes 0% growth. Versus a recent price of $42.10, that is 361% above value if growth stopped today. The model also publishes a capped-growth comparison, but the zero-growth estimate is the cautious baseline. It assumes trailing owner earnings persist and is unreliable for declining businesses. This is an educational estimate from primary SEC filings, not intrinsic value as a fact or investment advice.
- How has LQDT's Moat Score changed over time?
- The record logs 18 readings since Jul 17, 2026; the latest reads 59.3 out of 100 (shallow moat). No tier changes on record yet. (Methodology or normalizer upgrades on Jul 20, 2026, Jul 23, 2026, Jul 26, 2026 re-based the score; readings across versions aren't compared.) The history is append-only — readings are only ever added, never rewritten.