CF Industries Holdings, Inc. CF

Competitive advantage analysis · basic-materials

Corporate Default
Overall moat score
74/100
Moderate

About CF Industries Holdings, Inc.

CF Industries Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production of ammonia in North America, Europe, and internationally. It operates through Ammonia, Granular Urea, UAN, AN, and Other segments. The company offers ammonia products; nitrogen products, such as granular urea, urea ammonium nitrate solution, and ammonium nitrate; diesel exhaust fluid, urea liquor, and nitric acid products. It serves … Full CF analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Margins Consistently Above Peers Gross margin at 38.4% (top 18%) and operating margin at 32.5% (top 0%) indicate strong pricing power.
  • Strong Interest Coverage & Conservative Leverage Debt serviceability is strong (score 0.79), with robust interest coverage.

Key risks

  • Revenue Volatility Signals Weak Stickiness Revenue volatility is high (stability score 0.18), suggesting weak customer stickiness.

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

Moderate
74

Where CF ranks in Agricultural Inputs

CF Industries Holdings, Inc. ranks #2 of 16 scored companies in Agricultural Inputs by moat score — the top 12%. The widest moat in the group is Corteva, Inc. (CTVA) at 81/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near CF in Agricultural Inputs
# Company Moat score Rating
1 Corteva, Inc. CTVA 81/100 Strong
2 CF Industries Holdings, Inc. CF 74/100 Moderate
3 CVR Partners, LP UAN 68/100 Moderate
4 Nutrien Ltd. NTR 66/100 Moderate
5 Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (The SMG 58/100 Moderate
6 ICL Group Ltd. ICL 51/100 Moderate
7 FMC Corporation FMC 49/100 Developing
8 Mosaic Company (The) MOS 46/100 Developing
9 Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. BIOX 45/100 Developing

See every General Corporate company ranked by moat score →

How CF scores on the Corporate Default defenses

Pricing Power

Score 74 · 20% of the moat score

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

Cost Advantage

Score 97 · 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 56 · 15% of the moat score

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

Capital Efficiency

Score 70 · 18% of the moat score

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

Resilience

Score 86 · 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 74 · 15% of the moat score

Scale matters only when it converts into economics.

How each Corporate Default defense is measured, in full →

Understanding CF's moat

What is CF Industries Holdings, Inc.'s moat score?

CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (CF) scores 74 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #2 of 16 scored companies in Agricultural Inputs, the top 12%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 17 companies in Agricultural Inputs. Its strongest defense is Cost Advantage (97/100) and its weakest is Customer Stickiness (56/100).

How does CF Industries Holdings, Inc. compare with other Agricultural Inputs companies?

CF Industries Holdings, Inc. ranks #2 of 16 scored companies in Agricultural Inputs by moat score. The widest moat in Agricultural Inputs is Corteva, Inc. (CTVA) at 81/100. The companies ranked closest are Corteva, Inc. (CTVA) at 81 just above it and CVR Partners, LP (UAN) at 68 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 17 companies in Agricultural Inputs. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is CF Industries Holdings, 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 CF Industries Holdings, Inc.?

The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and CF scores: Pricing Power (74), Cost Advantage (97), Customer Stickiness (56), Capital Efficiency (70), Resilience (86), Scale & Market Position (74). 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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