Value Line Inc AGM 2026

Good morning. I think some of you are in the process of being admitted, so I'll give it another moment. This is the annual meeting of Value Line, Inc. shareholders for 2026. I am Howard Brecher, the Chairman of the Board and CEO of the company. I will lead the meeting. In just a moment, I'll make some comments on the excellent year that the company has had. After that, we will have the formal business of the meeting, in which we check for a quorum and take our votes. Thank you very much for attending. I'm told that the remote computer feeds are operating, so we're going to begin. Speaking about the Value Line fiscal year that ended on April 30, 2026, and for which you have our annual report and our proxy statement, it was an excellent year.

Our earnings per share at the company improved by almost 5%, and shareholders' dividends were increased for the 12th consecutive year. For that fiscal year, ending April 30, 2026, the company earned net income of $21,630,000. Continuing, the company net income of $21,630,000 computed to $2.30 per share. On a per share basis, that was up about 5% from fiscal 2025. Notably, retained earnings rose again. They were up almost $9.2 million, or 8.1%, compared to a year earlier, reaching $122,578,000 as of April 30, 2026, the highest level in the past two decades. Let me touch on a few major areas that your management is concentrating on now. On the marketing front, let me begin first about our original market of individual investors. Our publishing business for individual investors has continued advertising at a somewhat higher volume, as results have been good in a steadily rising stock market.

Getting consumers' attention is, of course, a battle for us, as for most advertisers. We have a solid presence on well-established social media platforms, and we have plans to reach additional audience this year through an investing podcast to be delivered on Spotify and other podcast locations. As we seek to give our subscribers the benefit of fast delivery and the ability to customize their services, we encourage readers to consider our digital delivery or combination plans of print and digital, while we share with subscribers the operational savings of internet delivery with them. When I say customize, I refer to the fact that our subscribers using the digital services can search and sort, filter by literally dozens and dozens of data fields, so they can hone in on the stocks and exchange traded funds and the rest that interest them.

Going on, let me speak about information technology, which is the heart of our business and so many others. As a publisher of data and research, we run on information day in and day out. Taking that into account, we are continually updating and redesigning our software systems for greater efficiency and reliability, as well as security. Security is always a priority in whichever direction we take, and we perform multiple professional tests of the security of our systems each year. Company hosts our IT equipment at multiple secure data centers at quite geographically dispersed locations, which I'm not supposed to say exactly where they are, but there are many, many hundreds of miles between the key locations. A key use of our IT facilities is in generating our ranks and ratings, the unique proprietary recommendations and ordering of securities that Value Line has done for 95 years now.

Our augmented staff of statistical experts has achieved a great record in both 2025 and this entire year to date. Meanwhile, our deeply experienced portfolio managers have continued to guide readers to outsize success in the market. We have expanded the use of carefully constrained artificial intelligence methods in our processes. By using the AI methods, we are able to even more quickly gather and organize the latest and most accurate data with reduced risk of error or inconsistency. These revised processes in turn support our highly talented staff, our proprietary ranking system, and one of the largest independent staffs in the world of analysts and data experts who work with our systems and our data and our methods to recommend and select stocks, mutual funds, and exchange traded funds to our subscribers, and many of whom in turn use it for their portfolio management type of operations.

Speaking of our own back office or support facilities, I want to say that the outsourcing of our distribution operations to U.S. domestic suppliers has been successful and continues to represent a cost saving as well. We also manage expenses by selectively reducing the frequency of mailing print publications in some instances, while providing the timelier investment information that we are able to give our customers through digital delivery. As I said, we emphasize digital delivery, which is available now on all of our subscriber services. And we share the benefit of those efficiencies with our subscribers through the combination print and digital delivery plans. Admittedly, the costs of paper, and especially postage, continue to be a headwind as we try to provide our loyal print readers of many years with the service that they want and rely upon.

Before I give you some numbers, let me turn my page here. Saving some of the best for last, financial highlights. The company remains exceptionally strong in terms of balance sheet numbers, cash flow, and all aspects of financial strength. That gives us the flexibility to continue our plans and to grow in good times and bad, up markets and down. Our investment in EAM, EULAV Asset Management Company, which is the distributor and advisor of the Value Line branded mutual funds. Our investment in EAM produced income to Value Line of nearly $19 million this fiscal year, and that represented a 3.6% increase over the year before. Retained earnings, which I mentioned, grew during the year by 8.1% to $122.6 million on April 30, 2026, a record high of the last 20 years.

Liquid assets, I talk about flexibility, liquid assets exceeded $86 million at year-end, a nearly 13% increase. That money is invested. It is not in a bank account, but it is invested in a variety of equities, treasury bonds, and other instruments, all of which are fully tradable and liquid at any time. And not incidentally, not coincidentally, our management of the investment portfolio produced investment income and gains of $6,428,000, nearly double the fiscal 2025 level and a nice contributor and steadying influence to our financial picture. And in the last two years alone, well over $20 million in dividends have been paid to shareholders, reflecting steady increases, and in fact, 12 annual increases in dividends in a row, voted by your board of directors.

In conclusion of my report, a quality management and employee team from research and statistics to sales, marketing, purchasing, IT, human resources, and all the rest, have brought us to continuing success, even in the face of persistent inflation in the economy. I want to thank the support of our employees, shareholders, and partners, which has enabled us to enjoy another year of financial growth and increased dividend. With that background, I am going to go into the official business of the meeting. We have the representative here of our stock transfer company, which does a steady job throughout the year for us, which we appreciate. We will go through the official business, and after that, I am going to take a couple of questions, which, as we indicated, were submitted in advance of the meeting, from shareholders.

Let me introduce to you our Vice President and Principal Financial Officer, Stephen Anastasio. He is here with us on the meeting at 551 Fifth Avenue, and he will participate in going through with you the business of the meeting. The meeting was called to order this morning at the beginning at 10:34 A.M. by me. Again, a couple of people joined late. I am Howard Brecher, the Chairman and CEO of Value Line, and we welcome you to the annual meeting. Purpose of the meeting is set forth in the notice of meeting, which you all received. It was mailed August 19th. Stephen Anastasio, as Vice President and proxy, will also act as secretary of this annual meeting. Steve, will you present the proof of the due calling of the meeting, please?

Sure. Good morning, all. The copy of the printed notice of the meeting date of- You are muted for the moment.

Oh. Mark, if you can arrange for Steve to speak.

Can you hear me now, Howard?

Can I mute this? You are muted on your end.