Daily Journal Corporation Announces Financial Results for the Nine Months ended June 30, 2023

         LOS ANGELES, Aug. 14, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- During the nine months ended June 30, 2023, Daily Journal Corporation (NASDAQ:DJCO) had consolidated revenues of $46,159,000 as compared to $35,502,000 in the prior year period. This increase of $10,657,000 was primarily from increases in (i) Journal Technologies’ consulting fees of $6,451,000 mainly resulting from more project go-lives (i.e. signoffs by the clients), license and maintenance fees of $3,413,000 and other public service fees of $649,000 and (ii) the Traditional Business’ advertising revenues of $114,000 and circulation revenues of $27,000.

        The Traditional Business’ pretax income increased by $870,000 to $2,312,000 from $1,442,000 in the prior fiscal year period, primarily because there was more reduction to the long-term supplemental compensation accrual of $795,000 as compared with a $25,000 reduction in the prior fiscal year period. Journal Technologies’ business segment pretax income increased by $4,026,000 to $910,000 from a pretax loss of $3,116,000 in the prior fiscal year period, primarily resulting from increased revenues of $10,513,000 as mentioned above. These revenue increases were partially offset by increased operating expenses of $6,487,000 mostly due to (i) increased personnel costs because of salary adjustments due to recent inflation in the compensation market for talent, (ii) additional contractor services and the hiring of additional staff members to strengthen operational efficiencies, product development, and bolster the teams working on the company’s installation projects, (iii) increased third-party hosting fees which were billed to clients and (iv) increased business travel expenses.

        During the nine months ended June 30, 2023, the Company sold certain of its marketable securities for approximately $2,826,000, realizing net gains on the sales of those marketable securities of $422,000 (as compared to the sales of $80,570,000 in marketable securities with realized net gains of $14,249,000 in the prior year period), and borrowed an additional $6,000,000 from the Company’s margin loan account to primarily purchase additional marketable securities with a total cost of approximately $10,001,000 (as compared to an additional marketable security purchase of $117,678,000 in the prior fiscal year with additional borrowings of $43,000,000). There were interest expense increases of $2,565,000 to $3,120,000 from $555,000 primarily because of the federal interest rate increases. In addition, there were net unrealized gains on marketable securities of $29,934,000 as compared to net unrealized losses of $57,075,000 in the prior fiscal year period. The Company’s investments generated approximately $7,119,000 in dividends and interest income for the nine months ended June 30, 2023, as compared to $4,251,000 in the prior fiscal year period.