Dave Inc. (DAVE) DCF Valuation & Fundamental Primer
Dave Inc. (DAVE) currently trades at $230.18 with an enterprise value of $5.02B. Our proprietary institutional model rates Dave Inc. at 83/100 (Grade: A · High-Quality Compounder). The current market price prices in an implied 5-year revenue CAGR of 18.1% vs. historical growth of 30.2% (Substantial Margin of Safety).
Institutional fundamental teardown of Dave Inc. (DAVE) covering SEC 10-K/10-Q cash flow conversion, SBC dilution friction, and Reverse-DCF valuation hurdles.
Dave Inc. (DAVE) 3-Scenario DCF Valuation Range
Stress-test DAVE's 5-year growth, target FCF margin, WACC, terminal methodology, and SBC/dilution friction in real time.
Split between 5-Year Explicit Cash Flows and Discounted Terminal Value
2D Institutional Valuation Sensitivity Heatmap
Implied share price & upside/downside spread across 25 valuation states (Current Price: $230.18).
| WACC \ Terminal | 1.5% | 2.0% | 2.5% | 3.0% | 3.5% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.5% | $405.00 +76% | $431.82 +88% | $463.10 +101% | $500.08 +117% | $544.45 +137% |
| 9.3% | $361.62 +57% | $382.75 +66% | $407.00 +77% | $435.14 +89% | $468.17 +103% |
| 10.0% | $326.00 +42% | $342.98 +49% | $362.23 +57% | $384.23 +67% | $409.62 +78% |
| 10.8% | $296.24 +29% | $310.13 +35% | $325.70 +41% | $343.28 +49% | $363.29 +58% |
| 11.5% | $271.03 +18% | $282.55 +23% | $295.35 +28% | $309.65 +35% | $325.74 +42% |
Institutional Software Quality Scorecard (83/100 · Grade A)
Strong fundamentals, above-average cash generation, and robust competitive positioning.
Elite deferred revenue float; FCF exceeds operating income by >20%
Standard software SBC dilution; modest equity transfer to employees
Elite Tier-1 SaaS compounder with high gross margin and superior Rule of 40
Manageable debt load covered by recurring positive free cash flow
Core Investment Strengths & Moats
- High-grade cash conversion: FCF is 361% of EBIT driven by upfront annual collections
- Top-quartile software unit economics: 91.2% gross margin and 66.1% Rule of 40 score
Key Operational & Dilution Risks
Reverse-DCF Solver: What Growth is Priced Into DAVE?
The current share price only requires 18.1% 5-year CAGR (33.2% dilution-adjusted), well below historical growth of 30.2%. If the company maintains baseline execution, there is asymmetric upside.
Headline Reverse-DCF ignores Stock-Based Compensation (10.8% of revenue) and annual share dilution (8.2%/yr). Accounting for both requires 33.2% 5-year revenue CAGR to justify $230.18/sh on a true per-share economic cash flow basis.
Dave Inc. (DAVE) 5-Year Fundamental Forecast
| Statement Line Item | TTM Audited Base | TTM | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $347.1M | $347.1M | $451.8M | $588.1M | $765.5M | $996.5M | $1.30B |
| Gross Profit | $316.7M | $316.7M | $412.3M | $536.6M | $698.5M | $909.3M | $1.18B |
| Operating Income (EBIT) | $34.6M | $34.6M | $45.0M | $58.6M | $76.3M | $99.3M | $129.3M |
| Stock-Based Compensation (SBC) | $37.3M | $37.3M | $48.6M | $63.2M | $82.3M | $107.1M | $139.4M |
| Unlevered Free Cash Flow (FCF) | $124.9M | $124.9M | $162.6M | $211.6M | $275.4M | $358.5M | $466.7M |
| SBC-Adjusted True Cash Flow | $87.5M | $87.6M | $114.0M | $148.4M | $193.1M | $251.4M | $327.3M |
Software & Cloud Services Peer Comparables & Rule of 40 Regression
Rule of 40 vs. EV / Revenue Multiple Regression
OLS Fit: EV/Rev = -8.0 + 0.36 × (Rule of 40) · R² = 28%Stocks below the gold regression line trade at a discount relative to their Rule of 40 compounding efficiency.
| Company | Ticker | Market Cap | TTM Revenue | Gross Margin | FCF Margin | Rule of 40 | SBC % Rev | EV / Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dave Inc. | DAVE | $3.18B | $347.1M | 91.3% | 36.0% | 66.1% | 10.8% | 9.2× |
| ServiceNow | NOW | $152.61B | $10.98B | 79.2% | 31.1% | 54.2% | 15.9% | 13.9× |
| Workday, Inc. | WDAY | $50.35B | $8.00B | 75.0% | 27.4% | 43.9% | 19.0% | 6.4× |
| Salesforce | CRM | $217.10B | $37.90B | 77.2% | 32.8% | 42.8% | 8.4% | 5.8× |
| Datadog | DDOG | $46.05B | $2.68B | 80.8% | 31.1% | 57.7% | 21.3% | 17.4× |
| Snowflake Inc. | SNOW | $71.79B | $3.63B | 66.5% | 25.2% | 57.7% | 40.8% | 20.0× |
| Hubspot | HUBS | $19.89B | $2.63B | 85.0% | 21.3% | 52.7% | 19.2% | 7.7× |
| Peer Cohort Median Benchmark (N=6) | 78.2% | 29.2% | 53.5% | 19.1% | 10.8× | |||
EV / Revenue Multiple Compression Stress Test
| Multiple Scenario | EV / Revenue | Implied Enterprise Value | Implied Equity Value | Implied Share Price | Delta vs Current |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current Multiple | 9.2× | $3.21B | $3.18B | $230.18 | 0.0% |
| -20% Multiple Compression | 7.4× | $2.57B | $2.54B | $183.77 | -20.0% |
| -35% Multiple Compression | 6.0× | $2.08B | $2.06B | $148.96 | -35.0% |
| Software Baseline Floor (5.0× EV/Rev) | 5.0× | $1.74B | $1.71B | $123.68 | -45.9% |
Frequently Asked Questions: Dave Inc. (DAVE) Valuation
What is Dave Inc. (DAVE)'s intrinsic DCF valuation and implied share price?
Based on audited SEC 10-K/10-Q filings and a 5-year 3-statement discounted cash flow (DCF) model, Dave Inc. (DAVE) has a Base Case implied value of $361.64 per share (with a Bear Case of $129.56 and a Bull Case of $724.25), compared to its current price of $230.18. The model discounts projected free cash flows at a 10.0% WACC and a 2.5% terminal growth rate.
What is Dave Inc. (DAVE)'s Rule of 40 score and Free Cash Flow margin?
Dave Inc. achieves a Rule of 40 score of 66.1%, combining a 30.2% revenue growth run-rate with a 36.0% TTM free cash flow margin on $347.1M in trailing twelve-month revenue. In the Software & Cloud Services peer cohort, the median Rule of 40 benchmark is 53.5%.
What revenue growth rate is priced into DAVE stock according to Reverse-DCF analysis?
At $230.18 per share (Enterprise Value of $3.21B), our Reverse-DCF solver indicates the market is pricing in a 5-year implied revenue CAGR of 18.1%, compared to Dave Inc.'s historical CAGR of 30.2%. Overall market expectations are rated as "Substantial Margin of Safety".
How does Dave Inc. compare to Software & Cloud Services software peers?
Dave Inc. (DAVE) earns an institutional Software Quality Score of 83/100 (Grade A — High-Quality Compounder). Across its Software & Cloud Services peer group (NOW, WDAY, CRM, DDOG, SNOW), the cohort trades at a median EV/TTM Revenue multiple of 10.8× and a median gross margin of 78.2%.
How does Stock-Based Compensation (SBC) impact Dave Inc. (DAVE)'s valuation?
Dave Inc. recorded $37.3M in TTM stock-based compensation (10.8% of revenue). When treating SBC as a cash-equivalent compensation expense, Dave Inc.'s SBC-adjusted free cash flow yield is 2.8%, scoring 16/25 on our Shareholder Dilution Friction pillar.
