One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$56.13 our estimate vs market $8.08
86% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Live Ventures Incorporated
LIVE · NCM · Consumer Cyclical · Home Improvement Retail
Current price
$8.08
52-week range
$7.96 - $22.70
Market cap
$24.82M
Balance sheet
Distressed
1.08x Concerning
Net debt $214.26M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
1 Reward
3 Risks
1 rewards · 3 risks
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
- Risk Net debt grew 49.3% over 3 years.
- Risk Operating margin compressed from 10.7% to 4.9% over 3 years.
- Risk Return on equity was -2.8% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
What this company does
Live Ventures Incorporated
Live Ventures owns several different businesses, making most of its money from manufacturing steel products and flooring like carpets and rugs. The company also runs retail stores that sell flooring and entertainment products, such as video games and movies. This mix means Live Ventures doesn't depend on a single industry, which can provide stability if one business area faces challenges.
How the company got here
Founded in 1968 as Nuclear Corporation of New Mexico, the company that is now Live Ventures has gone through several transformations, including being an early online yellow pages directory. By 2011, the company was near bankruptcy when its current CEO, Jon Isaac, made a significant investment and took over leadership. He then refocused the company into a diversified holding company, which is a parent company that owns a controlling interest in a group of smaller, often unrelated, businesses called subsidiaries. This new strategy involved acquiring various established companies across different industries to build a varied portfolio.
What it actually does
Live Ventures is a holding company, which means it doesn't make or sell one central product under its own name. Instead, it owns a collection of different businesses in seemingly unrelated sectors. These businesses operate independently and sell a wide range of products and services to everyday consumers and other businesses. Think of it like a person who owns a pizza shop, a car wash, and a bookstore; Live Ventures owns a portfolio of different kinds of companies.
Flooring Manufacturing
This segment, operating through its subsidiary Marquis Industries, manufactures and sells carpets, rugs, and yarn. It also resells hard-surface flooring products like vinyl and wood. Its customers are flooring dealers, home centers, and other flooring manufacturers. This part of the business is a significant revenue generator for the company.
Retail-Flooring
Through its company Flooring Liquidators, this segment sells and installs flooring, carpets, and countertops directly to homeowners. It also serves professional builders and contractors. This business operates a number of large warehouse-style stores and a design center.
Steel Manufacturing
This part of the company manufactures and supplies a variety of steel products. This includes specialized tool and die steel sold to steel distributors, as well as industrial knives for various industries. It also makes engineered metal parts for industries like automotive and medical.
Retail-Entertainment
This segment consists of a retail chain called Vintage Stock. These stores buy, sell, and trade new and used entertainment products like movies, video games, music, books, comics, and collectibles. They also offer services like repairing video game hardware.
What management is betting on now
The company's main strategy is to continue acquiring what it considers to be well-run, profitable, medium-sized businesses in the United States. They are 'sector-agnostic,' meaning they aren't focused on any particular industry. The goal is to buy these companies and hold them for the long term, investing in them to help them grow and generate cash flow (the cash generated by a company's normal business operations).
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 Q4
$3.26M
FY2025 Q1
$7.58M
FY2025 Q2
$-2.27M
FY2025 Q3
$10.84M
FY2025 Q4
$4.82M
FY2026 Q1
$8.51M
FY2026 Q2
$-4.71M
FY2026 Q3
$5.31M
Revenue
—
Net income
$-1.06M
Diluted EPS
-0.34
Operating cash flow
$7.60M
Free cash flow
$5.31M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$-2.45M
Diluted EPS
-0.80
Operating cash flow
$-2.79M
Free cash flow
$-4.71M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$108.54M
Net income
$-64.00K
Diluted EPS
-0.02
Operating cash flow
$9.85M
Free cash flow
$8.51M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$113.89M
Net income
$997.00K
Diluted EPS
-1.52
Operating cash flow
$6.76M
Free cash flow
$4.82M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$112.53M
Net income
$5.39M
Diluted EPS
1.24
Operating cash flow
$12.28M
Free cash flow
$10.84M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$107.01M
Net income
$15.87M
Diluted EPS
5.05
Operating cash flow
$231.00K
Free cash flow
$-2.27M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$111.51M
Net income
$492.00K
Diluted EPS
0.16
Operating cash flow
$9.40M
Free cash flow
$7.58M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$112.74M
Net income
$-19.87M
Diluted EPS
-6.31
Operating cash flow
$6.73M
Free cash flow
$3.26M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $56.13 vs current price $8.08
Our most-likely fair value is $56.13 a share — about 594.7% above today's price of $8.08, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Distressed
Net debt $214.3M. Interest coverage 1.1x.
Net debt
$214.26M
Interest coverage
1.08x
Live Ventures Incorporated's profit covers its interest bill about 1.1 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Distressed
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
LIVE
BASELINE
Live Ventures Incorporated
Total debt $225.16M Interest coverage 1.08x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $159.84M Interest coverage -141.80x -100% vs LIVE This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with LIVE.
Total debt $87.82M Interest coverage 160.10x +14,783% vs LIVE Carries about 148.8x more debt cushion than LIVE.
Total debt $230.71M Interest coverage 4.13x +284% vs LIVE Carries about 3.8x more debt cushion than LIVE.
What you should know
The case for and against LIVE
1 Reward
3 Risks
Rewards
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
Risks
-
Net debt grew 49.3% over 3 years.
-
Operating margin compressed from 10.7% to 4.9% over 3 years.
-
Return on equity was -2.8% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
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)
—
Forward P/E
1.08x
P/B
0.27x
P/S
0.06x
EV/EBITDA
7.94x
PEG ratio
—
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
33.1%
Operating margin
4.9%
Net margin
-0.6%
ROE
-2.8%
ROA
2.3%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
2.45x
Current ratio
1.35x
Quick ratio
0.39x
Total debt
$225.16M
Total cash
$10.90M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$441.98M
Revenue 5Y CAGR
13.0%
EPS TTM
-1.20
EPS 5Y CAGR
-14.3%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$21.42M
Free CF TTM
$20.98M
FCF margin
4.7%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
—
Payout ratio
0.0%
Last ex-div date
2005-07-12