Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. ACHC

Competitive advantage analysis · healthcare

Corporate Default
Overall moat score
51/100
Moderate

About Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc.

Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. provides behavioral healthcare services in the United States and Puerto Rico. The company develops and operates acute inpatient psychiatric facilities; specialty treatment facilities comprising residential recovery facilities and eating disorder facilities; comprehensive treatment centers; and residential treatment centers, as well as facilities providing outpatient behavioral healthcare services for the behavioral healthcare and recovery needs of communities. … Full ACHC analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Margins Consistently Above Peers Gross margin at 96.4% (top 4%) and operating margin at 11.7% (top 20%) indicate strong pricing power.
  • Scale Supporting Profitability Profitability at scale is strong (score 0.88), demonstrating competitive advantages.

Key risks

  • Elevated Debt Risk Debt serviceability is weak (score 0.29), raising refinancing risk.
  • Weak or Negative Cash Flow Cash generation is weak (score 0.22), limiting financial flexibility.

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

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Pricing Power

Strong
79

Where ACHC ranks in Medical Care Facilities

Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. ranks #26 of 58 scored companies in Medical Care Facilities by moat score — the top 45%. The widest moat in the group is Encompass Health Corporation (EHC) at 77/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near ACHC in Medical Care Facilities
# Company Moat score Rating
22 Guardian Pharmacy Services, Inc GRDN 58/100 Moderate
23 Aveanna Healthcare Holdings Inc AVAH 55/100 Moderate
24 The Pennant Group, Inc. PNTG 55/100 Moderate
25 PACS Group, Inc. PACS 53/100 Moderate
26 Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. ACHC 51/100 Moderate
27 COMPASS Pathways Plc - American CMPS 49/100 Developing
28 Select Medical Holdings Corpora SEM 49/100 Developing
29 LifeStance Health Group, Inc. LFST 48/100 Developing
30 InnovAge Holding Corp. INNV 44/100 Developing

See every General Corporate company ranked by moat score →

How ACHC scores on the Corporate Default defenses

Pricing Power

Score 78 · 20% of the moat score

Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.

Cost Advantage

Score 45 · 15% of the moat score

A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.

Customer Stickiness

Score 47 · 15% of the moat score

Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.

Capital Efficiency

Score 27 · 18% of the moat score

Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.

Resilience

Score 38 · 17% of the moat score

Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.

Scale & Market Position

Score 63 · 15% of the moat score

Scale matters only when it converts into economics.

How each Corporate Default defense is measured, in full →

Understanding ACHC's moat

What is Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc.'s moat score?

Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. (ACHC) scores 50 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #26 of 58 scored companies in Medical Care Facilities, the top 45%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 57 companies in Medical Care Facilities. Its strongest defense is Pricing Power (78/100) and its weakest is Capital Efficiency (27/100).

How does Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. compare with other Medical Care Facilities companies?

Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. ranks #26 of 58 scored companies in Medical Care Facilities by moat score. The widest moat in Medical Care Facilities is Encompass Health Corporation (EHC) at 77/100. The companies ranked closest are PACS Group, Inc. (PACS) at 53 just above it and COMPASS Pathways Plc - American (CMPS) at 49 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 57 companies in Medical Care Facilities. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. scored with the Corporate Default template?

Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.

Which competitive defenses are measured for Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc.?

The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and ACHC scores: Pricing Power (78), Cost Advantage (45), Customer Stickiness (47), Capital Efficiency (27), Resilience (38), Scale & Market Position (63). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.

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