SALEM MEDIA GROUP, INC.
SALM · Communications · $27.2M mkt cap · FY2022 filings · · No moat ·
Doesn't clear the bar
The five investor questions
2018–2022 (latest 5 aligned FYs; v3 window cap 5): revenue $263M to $267M, increasing; diluted EPS -0.12 to -0.12, flat.
Not enough years of gross-margin data to score pricing power.
Median ROIC 3.9%, above the 12% hurdle in 10% of years.
Net debt/EBITDA 9.0x, interest coverage 0x.
Owner earnings changed trend unclear over up to the ten most recent annual observations.
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. 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
- $1.00
- 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 238% above the zero-growth estimate across 49 of the current top 50 companies by Moat Score with both values.
Score records captured Sep 4, 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.
15 years of fundamentals
The business, in plain English
Across the filed record, revenue grew from $199M (FY2009) to $267M (FY2022) — about 2.3% a year compounded over 13 years.
It earned 1.2% on invested capital in the latest filed year, FY2022. Across the full 14-year measurable filed record, median ROIC was 4.2%. Over the v3 recent window (10 measurable filed years), median ROIC was 3.9%. The Returns on Capital filter above scores it 4/100.
The balance sheet carried $159M of total debt in FY2022. Balance-Sheet Safety scores it 0/100.
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.
Not disclosed in SALM’s filings for these years — we don’t estimate it.
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 SALM.
Communications context
#132 of 134 scored Communications companies, ranked by Moat Score.
Nearest peers by Moat Score
- #130GLTK GLOBALTECH CORPORATION15.2 out of 100, No moatNo moat
- #131GTN Gray Media, Inc.15.0 out of 100, No moatNo moat
- #133NUVR NUVERA COMMUNICATIONS, INC.13.6 out of 100, No moatNo moat
- #134SSP THE E.W. SCRIPPS COMPANY9.8 out of 100, No moatNo moat
Compare SALM with its nearest peers →All Communications companies on the Index →
Common questions about SALM
- Does SALEM MEDIA GROUP, INC. have an economic moat?
- Based on its FY2022 SEC filings, the Moat Index scores SALEM MEDIA GROUP, INC. (SALM) 15.0 out of 100 — below the Shallow-moat bar, so no 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 31, pricing power not measurable from the filings, returns on capital 4, balance-sheet safety 0, capital allocation 26.
- How has SALM's Moat Score changed over time?
- The record logs 16 readings since Jul 17, 2026; the latest reads 15.0 out of 100 (no 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.