Exploring Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE) Investor Profile: Who’s Buying and Why?

You're looking at Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE) and seeing a holding company that just swung from a loss to a substantial profit, but you still have to wonder who's defintely buying into this diversified model. The financial narrative for the 2025 fiscal year is compellingly complex: the company reported a stunning $21.7 million in net income over the first nine months, a nearly $30 million turnaround from the prior year's loss, plus Q3 operating income spiked 607.6% to $8.0 million. But here's the quick math: while the total institutional holdings are only valued around $3 million, the real conviction is coming from the top, with CEO Jon Isaac holding an enormous stake of over 6.9 million shares, and actively buying more, like the 21,711 shares he acquired in June 2025 alone. Does the small institutional footprint mean the market is missing the value in this 'mini-Berkshire' approach, or is the heavy insider ownership the only reason the stock is moving? We need to look past the headline numbers to see if Vanguard Group Inc. and Renaissance Technologies LLC are quietly building a position for the long haul, or if this is a story driven almost entirely by management's belief in their own value-creation strategy.

Who Invests in Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE) and Why?

If you're looking at Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE), you need to know who's actually holding the stock, because the ownership structure here is defintely not typical for a Nasdaq-listed company. The direct takeaway is this: LIVE is overwhelmingly controlled by its own insiders, making it a classic 'owner-operator' play, not a widely-held institutional darling.

This high concentration of ownership means the stock's performance is tightly linked to the long-term vision and capital allocation decisions of the management team. It's a small-cap, diversified holding company, so you're betting on the jockey, not just the horse.

The Concentrated Investor Base: Insiders and Institutions

The investor profile for Live Ventures Incorporated breaks down into three distinct camps, but one is clearly dominant. As of late 2025, the vast majority of shares are not in the hands of Wall Street's big mutual funds or pension systems.

• Insiders: Own the lion's share, at approximately 53.30% of the company.
• Retail Investors (Public Float): Hold an estimated 38.32%, making them the second-largest group.
• Institutional Investors: Account for a small fraction, around 8.38% of shares outstanding.

The CEO, Jon Isaac, is the largest individual shareholder, which is a critical signal for any potential investor. This level of insider skin-in-the-game means management's financial interests are deeply aligned with yours; they are not just collecting a salary.

Investment Motivations: Why They're Buying

The primary attraction to Live Ventures Incorporated is its 'mini-Berkshire Hathaway' model-a diversified holding company that buys, builds, and holds middle-market businesses for the long haul. Investors are buying into the capital allocation strategy, not just the underlying segments like Retail-Flooring or Steel Manufacturing.

The financial performance in the fiscal year 2025 provides concrete justification for this thesis. For the third quarter of fiscal 2025, the company reported a net income of $5.4 million, a significant turnaround from a net loss in the prior-year period. That's a huge swing in profitability that catches value investors' attention.

Other key motivations include:

• Earnings Momentum: Diluted earnings per share (EPS) for Q3 2025 hit $1.24, demonstrating improved operating performance and cost reduction initiatives.
• Value Play: The company focuses on acquiring well-run, closely held businesses with a track record of cash flow generation, a classic value investing approach. You can read more about the core philosophy here: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE).
• Balance Sheet Strength: Total assets stood at $387.5 million as of June 30, 2025, with stockholders' equity at $94.3 million, providing a solid base for future acquisitions.

The company does not pay a dividend, so the motivation is purely capital appreciation through business growth and smart acquisitions.

Strategies in Play: Long-Term vs. Quant

The strategies employed by Live Ventures Incorporated's investors are as varied as its business segments. Given the high insider ownership, the dominant strategy is clearly long-term holding and value investing.

Insiders and long-term retail investors are essentially mimicking the company's own 'buy-build-hold' philosophy. They are looking for the compounding effect of reinvested earnings across the portfolio of subsidiaries.

However, the presence of institutional players like Renaissance Technologies LLC, a known quantitative hedge fund, suggests a different angle. These funds often employ short-term trading or quantitative strategies that exploit market inefficiencies, price volatility, or momentum signals, which are common in thinly traded, small-cap stocks. The stock's reported high daily volatility, moving 8.02% between its high and low on a recent trading day, makes it a target for such strategies. What this estimate hides is the low trading volume, which can amplify price movements, so you need to be careful with your entry and exit points.

Here's the quick math: The company's focus on acquiring companies with annual earnings between $5 million and $50 million shows a clear path to growing the overall enterprise value, which is the core driver for the long-term holders. For you, this means your investment horizon should align with their multi-year acquisition and integration cycle.

Next step: Review the Q4 2025 earnings guidance for the Steel Manufacturing segment, as its performance is a key near-term driver of Adjusted EBITDA.

Institutional Ownership and Major Shareholders of Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE)

The key takeaway for Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE) is that institutional ownership is relatively low at approximately 8.38% of shares outstanding, but the real story is the high concentration of control held by insiders and related entities. This structure means the stock's day-to-day liquidity and valuation are influenced by a small group of large, passive funds, while the long-term strategic direction is firmly in the hands of management and its affiliates.

You need to understand that this isn't a widely-held mega-cap stock; it's a small-cap holding company where the CEO, Jon Isaac, and his affiliated entities, like Isaac Capital Group LLC, are the dominant owners. This means the institutional investors you see buying and selling are mostly taking a position on the company's value-oriented acquisition strategy, not trying to dictate corporate policy. For a deeper dive into the company's model, you can check out Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money.

Top Institutional Investors and Their Stakes

As of the most recent filings (Q3 2025), the institutional investor base for Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE) is characterized by a mix of quantitative funds and smaller asset managers. These are the funds that have decided the company's current valuation of $2.54 million in institutional holdings is a worthwhile bet. The total institutional float currently stands at about 257,530 common shares.

The table below shows the largest institutional holders based on their Q3 2025 13F filings, which is the freshest data we have. This group represents the public market's interest in the company's 'buy-build-hold' strategy.

Here's the quick math: the top five institutional holders account for over 70% of the total institutional shares, showing a concentrated interest even within the small institutional float.

Recent Shifts in Institutional Ownership

The third quarter of fiscal year 2025 saw a clear divergence in investor sentiment, which is typical for a micro-cap stock. Some funds were actively increasing their positions, while others were reducing them, signaling a split view on the near-term risk-reward profile. This kind of back-and-forth is defintely a source of volatility in the stock price.

Notable increases and new positions in Q3 2025:

• Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake by 2,800 shares, a jump of over 9.4%.
• Empowered Funds LLC was a significant buyer, adding 2,023 shares for an increase of over 10.5%.
• Two Sigma Investments, LP and Bailard, Inc. both initiated new positions, adding a combined 33,573 shares.

Conversely, some major players chose to trim their holdings, often a sign of rebalancing or a slight loss of conviction in the company's immediate outlook:

• Dimensional Fund Advisors LP cut its position significantly, reducing shares by 5,126, a 16.0% decrease.
• Vanguard Group Inc. also slightly reduced its stake by 2,852 shares, or 4.3%.

Impact of Institutional Investors on Strategy and Stock Price

In the case of Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE), the institutional investors' primary role is not one of corporate governance but of providing market legitimacy and liquidity. Because insiders, led by CEO Jon Isaac, control a majority of the shares-over 50%-institutional shareholders are essentially passive investors betting on the existing management team and their acquisition strategy.

The stock price, currently around $9.85 per share, is highly sensitive to the buying and selling of these institutions because the public float is so small. When a fund like Dimensional Fund Advisors LP sells 16% of its position, that selling pressure is felt disproportionately. Their participation is a form of validation for the company's structure as a diversified holding company, which recently announced a $21.7 million net income swing, staking its claim as a 'mini-Berkshire Hathaway.'

Your action item here is to track the filings of the largest buyers, like Renaissance Technologies LLC and Empowered Funds LLC. If they continue to increase their stakes in the next quarter, it suggests a growing belief among sophisticated quantitative funds that the company's asset base is undervalued, regardless of the high insider control.

Key Investors and Their Impact on Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE)

You want to know who is buying Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE) and why, because understanding the ownership structure is defintely key to gauging management's alignment and future direction. The direct takeaway is this: the company is overwhelmingly controlled by insiders, particularly the CEO, which means institutional influence is relatively minor, but recent institutional activity still points to a growing interest in the company's turnaround story.

The Dominant Insider: CEO Jon Isaac's Controlling Stake

The single most important investor in Live Ventures Incorporated isn't a BlackRock-sized fund; it's the company's own leadership. Insiders, led by CEO and President Jon Isaac, own a massive 53.30% of the stock. This level of ownership is highly unusual for a publicly traded company and fundamentally shapes its investment profile.

This huge insider stake means two things for you as an investor. First, management's interests are tightly aligned with shareholders-they are the largest shareholders. Second, it drastically reduces the influence of outside institutional investors, making it less susceptible to short-term activist pressure. It's a classic owner-operator model, which can be a double-edged sword: great for long-term, disciplined capital allocation, but less liquid.

Mr. Isaac has also been actively increasing his position in 2025, signaling strong internal conviction. For example, on June 25, 2025, he purchased 36,915 shares for approximately $320,899, contributing to a total of 74,864 shares bought by insiders in the last 24 months for a total of $589,087.47. That's a clear action, not just talk.

Institutional Players and Their Recent Moves

While insiders dominate, institutional investors still hold a piece of the action. As of the most recent filings (September 30, 2025), institutions collectively held 257,530 shares of common stock, representing 8.38% of the shares outstanding, with a total market value of approximately $2.54 million. That's a small slice, but it's a diverse group of sophisticated investors.

The largest institutional holders include well-known names in quantitative and diversified investing. Here's the quick math on who is holding and what they've been doing recently (as of Q3 2025):

• Vanguard Group Inc.: Held 62,936 shares but decreased their position by 4.335%.
• Bridgeway Capital Management LLC: Held 36,703 shares, showing a slight increase of 0.592%.
• Renaissance Technologies LLC: Increased their stake by 9.428%, holding 32,499 shares.
• Two Sigma Investments, LP: Entered as a New investor, acquiring 20,025 shares.

The entrance of a firm like Two Sigma Investments, LP, a major quantitative hedge fund, is a notable data point. It suggests that their models are picking up on a positive trend in Live Ventures Incorporated's fundamentals, despite the stock's low float (the number of shares available for public trading).

Mapping Investor Sentiment to Financial Performance

The recent institutional buying interest aligns with the company's improved financial results for the 2025 fiscal year. Investors are buying into the narrative of a value-oriented holding company that can successfully integrate and improve its acquisitions. You can see this in the Q3 2025 numbers (ended June 30, 2025):

The Q3 2025 net income of $5.4 million and diluted EPS of $1.24 are strong indicators that the company's 'buy-build-hold' strategy is working, even with revenue dips in some segments due to macro pressures like the housing market slowdown. This performance is what attracts the quantitative funds, who are looking for a clear inflection point in earnings. If you want to dive deeper into the strategy driving these results, you can review the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE).

The key risk here is that the high insider ownership means the stock can be thinly traded, which can lead to volatility. Still, the consistent insider buying and the new institutional money coming in suggest a positive outlook on the company's ability to maximize returns on its $387.5 million in total assets.

Next Step: Review the Q4 2025 earnings release once available, focusing on any further changes in institutional ownership and insider activity to confirm the current trend. Owner: Analyst.

Market Impact and Investor Sentiment

You're looking at Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE) and seeing a stock chart that tells two different stories: a long-term value play driven by management, and a recent sell-off driven by market uncertainty. The direct takeaway is that while outside sentiment is currently negative, the most informed investors-the insiders-are defintely buying, a classic signal of deep conviction.

As of November 2025, the stock closed at $9.85 and had fallen -26.03% in the preceding 10 days, suggesting a broadly negative near-term market sentiment (the consensus of all outside traders). But, honestly, that technical weakness masks a very strong positive signal from the people who know the company best: the executive team.

Insider sentiment is overwhelmingly positive, driven by high-impact open-market purchases. CEO Jon Isaac, for example, made significant buys in 2025, including a purchase of 55,796 shares in March and another 36,915 shares in June. This is a clear, concrete action that says management believes the stock is undervalued, especially when the share price is near its 52-week low of $6.25.

The Dominant Investor Profile: Insider Ownership and the 'Buy-Build-Hold' Strategy

The investor profile for Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE) is dominated by its own leadership, which is a critical factor for a diversified holding company (a business model often compared to a 'mini-Berkshire Hathaway'). This structure means the company's performance is intrinsically tied to its management's disciplined capital allocation strategy.

The largest shareholder is Isaac Capital Group LLC, controlled by CEO Jon Isaac, holding a commanding 45.39% of the company's equity. This level of insider ownership means management's interests are perfectly aligned with long-term shareholder value, but it also reduces the public float (the number of shares available for trading), contributing to the stock's high volatility.

The company itself is also an active buyer of its own stock, a strategy that signals confidence and reduces share count, which mechanically boosts earnings per share (EPS). In the third fiscal quarter of 2025 alone, Live Ventures Incorporated repurchased 12,695 shares at an average price of $8.83 per share.

• Dominant Owner: Isaac Capital Group LLC (45.39% ownership).
• Insider Confidence: CEO bought over 92,711 shares in 2025.
• Strategy: Disciplined 'buy-build-hold' approach to acquisitions.

Market Reaction to Financial Strength vs. Macro Headwinds

The stock market's recent response has been muted, even negative, despite impressive fiscal year 2025 financial results. The market is still grappling with the macro-economic reality of high interest rates and a soft housing market, which directly impacts the company's Retail-Flooring and Flooring Manufacturing segments.

To be fair, the company's third-quarter 2025 results (ended June 30, 2025) were strong. Net income soared to $5.4 million, a significant turnaround from a net loss of $2.9 million in the prior-year period. This translates to a diluted EPS of $1.24, up from a loss of $0.91 per share a year earlier. This is a huge jump.

Here's the quick math on the operational improvement: Adjusted EBITDA more than doubled, increasing 115.4% to $13.2 million in Q3 2025, up from $6.1 million in Q3 2024. But still, the stock's short-term price action is reflecting the revenue decline-revenue was $112.5 million, down from $123.9 million in the prior-year quarter-a clear sign that investors are prioritizing top-line growth and macro risk over bottom-line efficiency gains.

The Analyst Vacuum and Institutional Retreat

One of the biggest risks for Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE) is the lack of institutional air cover, which is the support provided by major Wall Street analysts and large institutional funds. The company currently has virtually no traditional analyst coverage, meaning there is no consistent, independent research to drive institutional interest or explain the complex holding company structure to a broader audience.

The institutional ownership is fragmented and small. While major firms like Vanguard Fiduciary Trust Co. and Renaissance Technologies LLC hold small positions (less than 3% each), the trend has been a mild retreat. For instance, Bridgeway Capital Management LLC reduced its position by -21.1% in the period leading up to August 2025, and Geode Capital Management LLC cut its shares by -13.7%.

This institutional selling, though small in dollar value, suggests that even the few funds that own the stock are trimming their positions, likely due to the high volatility and the lack of a clear near-term catalyst. The company's future hinges on its ability to execute its long-term vision, which you can read more about here: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Live Ventures Incorporated (LIVE).

Your action: Focus less on the daily stock price and more on the quarterly earnings call transcripts to understand management's commentary on the flooring and steel segments-that's where the real value is being built or lost.