One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$7.59 our estimate vs market $1.09
Wall Street consensus: $3.00 (-60.5% lower than our fair-value estimate)
86% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Dolphin Entertainment, Inc.
DLPN · NCM · Communication Services · Advertising Agencies
Current price
$1.09
52-week range
$1.02 - $1.88
Market cap
$14.20M
Balance sheet
Distressed
-0.17x Concerning
Net debt $20.17M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
2 Rewards
2 Risks
2 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 1.7% last year.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 1/10 years.
- Risk Return on equity was -51.6% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
- Risk Net debt grew 25.5% over 3 years.
What this company does
Dolphin Entertainment, Inc.
Dolphin Entertainment is a marketing and production company that works behind the scenes in the entertainment world. It makes most of its money providing publicity services—like social media campaigns and celebrity bookings—to movie studios, musicians, and video game companies. The company's success depends on its ability to win and keep high-profile clients who need to promote their projects.
How the company got here
Dolphin Entertainment was started in 1996 by a former lawyer, Bill O'Dowd, out of his bedroom in Miami. For its first two decades, the company focused on producing television shows and movies, especially for children and young adults, including the popular Nickelodeon series "Zoey 101". A key turning point came around 2016 when, after producing a couple of feature films, the company realized the importance of marketing and promotion. This led to a new strategy of buying several public relations (PR) and marketing firms, shifting the company's focus to providing marketing services for the entertainment industry.
What it actually does
Dolphin Entertainment is a company that helps create and promote entertainment content. Think of them as having two main jobs: one is making movies and TV shows, and the other is handling the marketing and publicity for celebrities, movies, musicians, and even food and hospitality brands. They own a collection of top-ranked public relations firms that work behind the scenes to get media attention for their clients. So, while you might watch a movie they produced, you might also see their work in the form of a celebrity interview on a talk show or a feature on a popular new restaurant in a magazine.
Entertainment Publicity and Marketing
This is the largest part of Dolphin's business, making up the vast majority of its revenue (the total money the company brings in from sales). This segment is a collection of different marketing and PR agencies that Dolphin has acquired, including well-known names like 42West, The Door, and Shore Fire Media. These agencies are paid by clients—who can be actors, musicians, film studios, or brands—for a wide range of services like getting positive media coverage, managing social media, and booking celebrities for events. For example, one of their agencies might handle the press tour for a blockbuster movie, while another might manage the public image of a famous chef.
Content Production
This is the original part of the company and is now the smaller of the two segments in terms of revenue (the money earned from selling goods and services). This division, which includes Dolphin Films, is responsible for developing and producing movies and television shows. They have produced content for networks like Nickelodeon and streaming services such as Hulu. Recently, they have partnered with IMAX to co-produce documentary films, like "The Blue Angels".
What management is betting on now
The company's main focus is on leveraging its powerful group of marketing agencies to work together and offer a comprehensive suite of services to clients. They are also expanding into new areas through their "Ventures" division, where they invest in and partner with new brands and entertainment-related businesses, such as a gin brand with Rachael Ray and a book publishing partnership. Additionally, management is focused on improving the company's financial health by aiming to become free cash flow positive (having cash left over after paying for operating expenses and capital expenditures, which are investments in long-term assets like property and equipment) and has initiated a stock buyback program (when a company buys its own shares from the marketplace, which can signal management's confidence in the company's future).
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$-1.67M
FY2024 Q4
$850.20K
FY2025 Q1
$-1.70M
FY2025 Q2
$1.51M
FY2025 Q3
$-2.41M
FY2025 Q4
$576.59K
FY2026 Q1
$-2.04M
FY2026 Q2
$-162.41K
Revenue
$14.44M
Net income
$-1.61M
Diluted EPS
-0.13
Operating cash flow
$-162.41K
Free cash flow
$-162.41K
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$12.80M
Net income
$-2.69M
Diluted EPS
-0.22
Operating cash flow
$-2.04M
Free cash flow
$-2.04M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$15.65M
Net income
$1.02M
Diluted EPS
0.10
Operating cash flow
$576.59K
Free cash flow
$576.59K
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$14.80M
Net income
$-365.49K
Diluted EPS
-0.03
Operating cash flow
$-2.41M
Free cash flow
$-2.41M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$14.09M
Net income
$-1.41M
Diluted EPS
-0.13
Operating cash flow
$1.51M
Free cash flow
$1.51M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$12.17M
Net income
$-2.33M
Diluted EPS
-0.21
Operating cash flow
$-1.70M
Free cash flow
$-1.70M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$12.32M
Net income
$-1.96M
Diluted EPS
-0.32
Operating cash flow
$850.20K
Free cash flow
$850.20K
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$12.68M
Net income
$-8.69M
Diluted EPS
-0.80
Operating cash flow
$-1.67M
Free cash flow
$-1.67M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $7.59 vs current price $1.09
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $3.00 (-60.5% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $7.59 a share — about 596.6% above today's price of $1.09, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Distressed
Net debt $20.2M. Interest coverage -0.2x.
Net debt
$20.17M
Interest coverage
-0.17x
Dolphin Entertainment, Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 0.0 times over. which is weaker than most peers shown here and 5 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Distressed
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
DLPN
BASELINE
Dolphin Entertainment, Inc.
Total debt $27.84M Interest coverage -0.17x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $0.00 Interest coverage -290.31x Neither company has much profit cushion over interest right now.
Total debt $13.48M Interest coverage -20.56x Neither company has much profit cushion over interest right now.
Total debt $2.04M Interest coverage -14.32x Neither company has much profit cushion over interest right now.
Total debt $67.68M Interest coverage -1.27x Neither company has much profit cushion over interest right now.
Total debt $34.60M Interest coverage -5.51x Neither company has much profit cushion over interest right now.
What you should know
The case for and against DLPN
2 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 1.7% last year.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 1/10 years.
Risks
-
Return on equity was -51.6% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
-
Net debt grew 25.5% over 3 years.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
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Forward P/E
3.03x
P/B
2.29x
P/S
0.25x
EV/EBITDA
311.98x
PEG ratio
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Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
94.8%
Operating margin
-7.1%
Net margin
-6.3%
ROE
-51.6%
ROA
-2.3%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
4.48x
Current ratio
0.77x
Quick ratio
0.70x
Total debt
$27.84M
Total cash
$7.67M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$57.69M
Revenue 5Y CAGR
12.2%
EPS TTM
-0.28
EPS 5Y CAGR
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Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$-4.03M
Free CF TTM
$-2.03M
FCF margin
-3.5%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
—
Payout ratio
0.0%
Last ex-div date
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