Live Ventures Inc

This light rates the company, not the share price. Red here stands for three documented findings that together bear on the reliability of reported earning power. First, earnings quality: of fiscal 2025 net income of $22.7 million, $27.5 million came from non-cash paper gains ($22.8 million from modifying an acquisition seller note, $2.8 million from settling an earn-out, $1.2 million from settling a purchase price holdback, $0.7 million from a debt extinguishment), plus a $2.1 million one-off payroll tax credit; operating income of $14.6 million is entirely consumed by $15.6 million of interest expense, and the first half of fiscal 2026 shows a loss of $2.5 million. Second, the balance sheet: $299.6 million of liabilities against $92.9 million of equity (March 31, 2026), with goodwill write-offs of $18.1 million in fiscal 2024 and $4.0 million in the quarter to March 31, 2026. Third, the legal position: a civil lawsuit by the U.S. securities regulator pending since August 2, 2021 against the company, the sitting chief executive and the former chief financial officer over accounting and disclosure violations from 2016 to 2018, seeking permanent officer-and-director bars and disgorgement; on February 10, 2026 the court denied both sides' motions for summary judgment, trial preparation is under way and no date has been set. A parallel investor class action is also pending. The allegations have not been decided by any court, the company denies them, and the presumption of innocence applies — this colour rates not the outcome but the documented uncertainty around a load-bearing figure. Expressly excluded from this colour are price, valuation, float and volatility. Also excluded is the Altman-Z of 5.33: on the Z" scale (thresholds 1.1 and 2.6) it sits in the safe band and shows no arithmetic insolvency signal, but it rests on earnings with a high paper-gain share and measures neither legal risk nor control structure. The decision is yours.

Assessment: Opportunities & Risks

Live Ventures is a Las Vegas holding company with $444.9 million of revenue and a market value of roughly $28 million — at first glance a bargain at 0.34 times book value. The filings show something else: of fiscal 2025 net income of $22.7 million, $27.5 million is paper gains from renegotiated acquisition debt; after interest the group earns nothing from operations. Only one business carries the load, entertainment retailer Vintage Stock; flooring retail loses $12.0 million a year after interest. On top sits a structure in which one man holds roughly 67.4 percent of the votes and is simultaneously the largest lender — with a conversion right over roughly half the share count. And against that same man and the company, the U.S. securities regulator has been litigating since 2021 in a case a court cleared for trial in February 2026. The allegations are undecided and the company denies them. Not investment advice.

Worth Noting

Live Ventures reached the research list through our in-house stock scanner "K/FCF ranking" (U.S. selection), measured July 27, 2026 on both brands: 545 U.S. hits, LIVE at a K/FCF of 1.393 in place 25 — identical on boersenlotse.de and tickerguard.com. That is exactly the last place the detail page shows; slip one rank and the name is no longer visible there. No tie (neighbouring values 1.386 and 1.4225). Anyone still wanting to find it then uses the screener and sets the P/FCF filter to its lowest band. These lists are recomputed daily.

The ratio needs qualifying twice for this name and is therefore recomputed in the piece. First, of the $28.7 million of fiscal 2025 operating cash flow, roughly $12.4 million came from running down receivables ($7.2 million) and inventories ($5.2 million) as revenue fell — a one-time release, not earning power; excluding all working capital movements, roughly $19.9 million remains operationally and roughly $12.2 million after capital expenditure, which makes the K/FCF about 2.3 rather than 1.4. Second, that cash flow belongs overwhelmingly to lenders: financial debt of roughly $122.4 million plus $42.9 million of finance leases against $15.2 million of cash (March 31, 2026), with interest expense of $15.6 million in fiscal 2025.

The Altman-Z of 5.33 is quoted but not used as an all-clear. On the Z" scale used here the thresholds are 1.1 (distress zone) and 2.6 (safe band); unlike at a bank, the formula is in principle applicable to a retail and manufacturing group. It rests here, however, on earnings largely composed of paper gains, and it measures neither legal risk nor control structure. The Piotroski score of 3 out of 9 and two balance-sheet warning flags in the same data set paint a considerably more cautious picture.

Identity checked strictly, because the LIVE ticker is ambiguous and the company has changed its name five times: the SEC ticker registry maps LIVE to CIK 0001045742, and the cover page of the quarterly report for March 31, 2026 reads "Live Ventures Incorporated", Nevada, Commission File Number 001-33937, trading symbol LIVE on the Nasdaq Capital Market. Former names per SEC entity data: LiveDeal Inc (2007–2015), YP Corp (2004–2007), YP Net Inc (1999–2004), RIGL Corp (1998–1999) and Renaissance International Group Ltd (1998).

Two widespread assumptions are expressly corrected in the piece. First: neither current filing contains any "bargain purchase" gain — the term appears nowhere in the fiscal 2025 annual report or the March 31, 2026 quarterly report; the paper gains come from restructuring acquisition debt. Second: the Series E preferred carries no documented special or super voting right; it comprises 47,840 shares with a $0.30 liquidation preference and a 5 percent dividend on it. The 67.4 percent of voting control arises from common stock (217,177 personally, 1,357,306 through ICG) plus the conversion right on the ICG revolver. The board may, however, freely set the terms of future preferred series, including their voting rights. Also clarified: there is no auto parts or tire segment in the current filings.

Price and valuation figures are dated anchors, not buy arguments: price $9.70 as of July 24, 2026, ratio data as of July 27, 2026, market value roughly $28 million from fundamental data. The share count of 3,071,656 comes from the quarterly report cover page (as of May 8, 2026). No analyst price target is quoted deliberately: with a public float value of roughly $8.9 million and daily turnover around $0.1 million, the values in data sets are not reliable.

The most recent periodic report is the quarterly report 10-Q for March 31, 2026 (filed May 14, 2026); it covers the second quarter of the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026. The third-quarter report (June 30, 2026) was not yet due at the data date of July 27, 2026 — a non-accelerated filer has until August 14, 2026. Filed after May 14, 2026: the Form S-3 registration statement for $50.0 million of June 18, 2026 and the current report 8-K of June 25, 2026 (Item 5.07, annual meeting results). Both are evaluated. The fiscal 2025 annual report was filed on time on December 17, 2025; no late-filing notification (NT 10-K) exists for that year, though there were ten historically — the most recent in 2020.