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Houlihan Lokey

HLI on NYSE. Houlihan Lokey sells investment banking advice to companies, investors, and government agencies. Market value $11.2bn.

Watch this stockFree. We tell you when something changes.

Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Some use the latest annual report instead, as marked. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to March 2026.

We can't read total debt from the filing, so debt is left out.

Should I look at this?

Good business, but not cheap right now

Why it could be worth it

What to watch out for

See cheaper Financial services stocks on the list

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

Compare with another stock

Return on equity
five annual reports to March 2026
18.8%five-year median

Yearly profit per dollar of owners' money: 19 cents. Above 10 is good.

Price to book
quarterly report to June 2026
3.9×

What you pay for each dollar of net assets: $3.88.

Earnings yield
past 12 months to June 2026
4.6%

Profit per $100 you pay: $4.63.

Quality score: 100 of 100. Price score: 28 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$127.94 a share, 13% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $112.83 to $204.18.

Dividend: 2.0% a year

Paid every year for at least 5 years

Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
20222023202420252026
Revenue
$2.3bn$1.8bn$1.9bn$2.4bn$2.6bn
Operating margin
n/an/an/an/an/a
Debt to equity
n/an/an/an/an/a
Shares outstanding
0.07bn0.07bn0.07bn0.07bn0.07bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positiveDoesn't apply to banks and insurers
  • Accounting checksDoesn't apply to banks and insurers
  • DebtDoesn't apply to banks and insurers
  • Revenue growth, five yearsStrong, 11.4% a year
  • Buying back its own sharesRoughly flat

The quarter to June 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Sales: $511 million last quarter, down 16% on a year ago.
  • Profit: $78 million, down 20% on a year ago.
  • 2% fewer shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit more of the company.
  • Sales grew on a year ago in 2 of the last 4 quarters.
Sales by quarter
Sales by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$575m
December 2024$634m
March 2025$666m
June 2025$605m
September 2025$659m
December 2025$717m
March 2026$636m
June 2026$511m
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$94m
December 2024$95m
March 2025$122m
June 2025$98m
September 2025$112m
December 2025$117m
March 2026$100m
June 2026$78m

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
n/a
Last annual report (10-K)
22 May 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
30 October 2026

Who owns it

7 long-term investors we follow own it, up from 6 last quarter. 517 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26
Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

4 investors own more than 5%.

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

In the last 12 months, 1 insider bought $500,570 of shares on the open market. 3 sold $2m, $158,785 of it under preset trading plans.

  • CRAIN CHRISTOPHER M
    GENERAL COUNSEL
    Sold
    Date
    10 September 2026
    Shares
    1,000
    Price
    $140.15
    Value
    $140,150
  • ALLEY J LINDSEY
    Chief Financial Officer
    Bought
    Date
    3 August 2026
    Shares
    4,020
    Price
    $124.52
    Value
    $500,570
  • BEISER SCOTT L
    CO-CHAIRMAN, Director
    Sold
    Date
    21 May 2026
    Shares
    6,265
    Price
    $150.26
    Value
    $941,379
  • CRAIN CHRISTOPHER M
    GENERAL COUNSEL
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    1 April 2026
    Shares
    500
    Price
    $143.40
    Value
    $71,700
  • SCHRIESHEIM ROBERT A
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    6 February 2026
    Shares
    5,000
    Price
    $170.86
    Value
    $854,300
  • CRAIN CHRISTOPHER M
    GENERAL COUNSEL
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    2 January 2026
    Shares
    500
    Price
    $174.17
    Value
    $87,085

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

Warning signs in its filings

Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.

None of the warning signs we check for were found.

We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.

We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 22 May 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 31 Jul 2026 and 4 later 8-Ks.

A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.

What could go wrong

Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
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What a finished deep dive looks like

Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.