QUALSTAR CORP
QBAK · Technology · $12.4M mkt cap · FY2019 filings · · Shallow moat ·
Doesn't clear the bar
The five investor questions
2017–2019 (latest 3 aligned FYs; v3 window cap 5): revenue $10.6M to $13.4M, increasing; diluted EPS 0.31 to 0.00, decreasing.
Median gross margin 29.0% over 10y, variable.
Median ROIC -14.1%, above the 12% hurdle in 20% of years.
Net cash position — no leverage risk.
Owner earnings changed trend unclear 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.
- Not reported
- Unavailable — insufficient owner-earnings data
- Unavailable — insufficient growth-model data
- $6.44
- No price data
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 264% above the zero-growth estimate across 49 of the current top 50 companies by Moat Score with both values.
Score records captured Nov 10, 2026.
Exactly which 50 companies?
FTNT, IBEX, META, MEDP, MSFT, GOOG, LULU, ANF, IDXX, TXRH, FHI, QLYS, FFIV, ADBE, LLY, MANH, CPRT, VEEV, RMD, GRMN, PCTY, EAT, UI, SSD, MNST, DOCS, LRCX, MCO, NTAP, NVDA, CORT, SFM, MPTI, ULTA, SN, ROL, CTAS, PAYC, IRMD, DECK, MORN, INTU, JKHY, TPR, LGCY, UCFI, DAL, GWW, ISRG, MPWR
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.
11 years of fundamentals
The business, in plain English
QUALSTAR CORP booked $13.4M of revenue in FY2019 in the Technology sector and kept 26.2% of it as gross profit — a moderate-margin business by that measure. After every other cost, −0.1% of each revenue dollar reached the bottom line.
Across the filed record, revenue shrank from $15.3M (FY2010) to $13.4M (FY2019) — about −1.4% a year compounded over 9 years.
It earned −1.9% on invested capital in the latest filed year, FY2019. Across the full 10-year measurable filed record, median ROIC was −14.1%. Over the v3 recent window (10 measurable filed years), median ROIC was −14.1%. The Returns on Capital filter above scores it 7/100.
QBAK's latest filed year, FY2019, 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: Business Trend is the strongest of the five filters (60/100) and Returns on Capital the weakest (7/100), which is how QBAK lands at 42/100 — 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
Score history begins Nov 10, 2026 — the record builds forward from here.
Tier changesSame-methodology and same-normalizer crossings of the Wide / Narrow / Shallow bars
None yet — QBAK has read Shallow moat for every logged capture since Nov 10, 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 QBAK.
Technology context
#445 of 754 scored Technology companies, ranked by Moat Score.
Nearest peers by Moat Score
- #443RFIL R F INDUSTRIES LTD41.7 out of 100, Shallow moatShallow moat
- #444BLND BLEND LABS, INC.41.7 out of 100, Shallow moatShallow moat
- #446MCHX Marchex, Inc.41.6 out of 100, Shallow moatShallow moat
- #447AIOT POWERFLEET, INC.41.5 out of 100, Shallow moatShallow moat
Compare QBAK with its nearest peers →All Technology companies on the Index →
Common questions about QBAK
- Does QUALSTAR CORP have an economic moat?
- Based on its FY2019 SEC filings, the Moat Index scores QUALSTAR CORP (QBAK) 41.6 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 31, returns on capital 7, balance-sheet safety 55, capital allocation 55.
- How has QBAK's Moat Score changed over time?
- The record logs 1 reading since Nov 10, 2026; the latest reads 41.6 out of 100 (shallow moat). No tier changes on record yet. The history is append-only — readings are only ever added, never rewritten.