Daily Journal Corporation Announces Financial Results for the six months ended March 31, 2024

LOS ANGELES, May 14, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- During the six months ended March 31, 2024, Daily Journal Corporation (NASDAQ:DJCO) had consolidated revenues of $32,564,000 as compared to $28,455,000 in the prior year period. This increase of $4,109,000 was primarily from increases in (i) Journal Technologies’ license and maintenance fees of $3,337,000, and other public service fees of $904,000, partially offset by decreased consulting fees of $254,000, and (ii) the Traditional Business’ advertising revenues of $209,000.

The Traditional Business’ pretax income decreased by $782,000 to $861,000 from $1,643,000 in the prior fiscal year period, primarily due to increased personnel costs of $674,000 to $5,173,000 from $4,499,000, partially offset by an increased reduction of $100,000 to the long-term supplemental compensation accrual to arrive at a reduction of $800,000 as compared with a reduction of $700,000 in the prior fiscal year period. Journal Technologies’ business segment pretax income increased by $1,129,000 to pretax income of $395,000 from a pretax loss of $734,000 in the prior fiscal year period primarily resulting from increased revenues of $3,987,000. These revenue increases were partially offset by increased operating expenses of $2,858,000 mostly due to (i) increased personnel costs because of salary adjustments, (ii) additional contractor services and the hiring of additional staff members to strengthen operational efficiencies, conduct product development and address technical debt, and bolster teams working on the Company’s installation projects, and (iii) increased third-party hosting fees which were billed to clients.

At March 31, 2024, the Company held marketable securities valued at $297,003,000, including net pretax unrealized gains of $157,909,000, and accrued a deferred tax liability of $40,490,000, for estimated income taxes due only upon the sales of the net appreciated securities. During March 2024, the Company sold certain of its marketable securities for approximately $40,579,000, realizing net gains of $14,261,000, and used these proceeds to further pay down the margin loan balance to $29,421,000 from $75,000,000 at September 30, 2023. After including last quarter’s paydown of $5,000,000 with excess cash from operations, there were total paydowns of approximately $45,579,000 to the margin loan during the six months ended March 31, 2024.