MeritValue

Red Violet, Inc.

RDVTdata completeness 88%9 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

Red Violet, Inc. earns about 11% on invested capital, comfortably above its ~9% cost of capital, but has diluted owners by 7% over 5 years — a real edge showing up in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $5.04 and $101.58 a share.Whether it’s worth owning at today’s price is the last question — and yours to answer, below.

i. The business — what you’d actually own
FigureFY 2021FY 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025
Revenue$44M1$53.3M2$60.2M3$75.2M4$90.3M4
Net income$655,0005$616,0006$13.5M7$7M8$13.2M8
Operating cash flow$8.95M9$12.5M10$15.1M11$24M12$29.3M12
Capital expenditure$280,00013$373,00014$122,00015$169,00016$563,00016
Free cash flow (derived)$8.67M9$12.1M10$14.9M11$23.8M12$28.8M12
Total debt$017————
Cash & equivalents$34.3M18$31.8M19$32M20$36.5M21$43.6M21
Diluted shares13.4M14.1M14.1M14.1M14.4M

Superscripts are receipts. Each links to the SEC filing the number came from (full list at the bottom).

ii. Your slice — ownership made literal
If you owned
shares
Net assets behind them
$70.1
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$9.14
Free cash flow it threw off
$19.99
Debt you’d be carrying
—

10 shares is a claim on $70.1 of net worth that earned you $9.14 and generated $19.99 of cash last year.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
11% avg · 5y
FY21 2%FY22 2%FY23 10%FY24 16%FY25 25%

It earned about 11% on invested capital against a ~9% cost of capital — comfortably above the cost of funding, a moderate advantage.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
+7% shares · 5y

Share count is up 7% over 5 years — owners have been diluted. Worth asking what they got for it.

reading capital allocation →

Signals, not verdicts — read from the filings above. Numbers don’t prove a moat; they show its footprint. You decide.

iv. What it’s worth — engine v0.1.0

The 3 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $5.04 and $101.58 a share. They rest on different assumptions, so where they diverge is the story; the Graham Number is a stricter floor, not a target.

DCF · Growth Exit 10Y
$101.58
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$23.8M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$56.9
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$23.8M
Earnings Power Value
$5.04
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$7M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$11.98
assumptions (1)
  • grahamMultiplier2250.0%

Different models answer different questions — which to trust when →

v. The price question — last, on purpose
Is today’s price fair?
See live price ↗
Type a price. The ledger answers.
Or set your own belief
FCF growth, next 5 years20.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $56.9
The three cases
Bear0.0%$26.63
Base20.0%$56.9
Bull20.0%$56.9

Bear/base/bull growth = 0% / filed history / history + 5pp. Type a price to see the return each case implies.

Default growth 20.0%= this company’s own filed history (median-to-median FCF CAGR, clamped 0–20%). Your adjustments are recorded anonymously. They become the “what do owners actually believe” dataset.

Sources — the receipts
  1. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000950170-23-006736 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000950170-24-028115 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000950170-25-029184 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0001193125-26-091708 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000950170-23-006736 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000950170-24-028115 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000950170-25-029184 (NetIncomeLoss)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0001193125-26-091708 (NetIncomeLoss)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000950170-23-006736 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000950170-24-028115 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000950170-25-029184 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0001193125-26-091708 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000950170-23-006736 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000950170-24-028115 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000950170-25-029184 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0001193125-26-091708 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  17. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000950170-22-003240 (LongTermDebtCurrent)
  18. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000950170-23-006736 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  19. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000950170-24-028115 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  20. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000950170-25-029184 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  21. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0001193125-26-091708 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)