Chimera Investment Corporation CIM

Competitive advantage analysis · real-estate

Lender Specialized
Overall moat score
46/100
Developing

About Chimera Investment Corporation

Chimera Investment Corporation operates as a real estate investment trust (REIT) in the United States. It operates in two segments, Investment Portfolio and Residential Origination. The company, through its subsidiaries, invests in, originates, and manages a portfolio of mortgage assets, including residential mortgage loans, non-agency mortgage-backed securities, agency mortgage-backed securities, business purpose loans, investor loans, mortgage servicing rights, and other … Full CIM analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key risks

  • Thin Equity Cushion Equity cushion is thin (score 0.32).

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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Funding & Return Stability

Developing
47

Where CIM ranks in REIT - Mortgage

Chimera Investment Corporation ranks #34 of 49 scored companies in REIT - Mortgage by moat score — the top 69%. The widest moat in the group is AGNC Investment Corp. - Deposit (AGNCM) at 73/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near CIM in REIT - Mortgage
# Company Moat score Rating
30 Ladder Capital Corp LADR 49/100 Developing
31 Angel Oak Mortgage REIT, Inc. AOMR 48/100 Developing
32 Rithm Capital Corp. RITM 48/100 Developing
33 Cherry Hill Mortgage Investment CHMI 48/100 Developing
34 Chimera Investment Corporation CIM 46/100 Developing
35 ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. ARR 44/100 Developing
36 Franklin BSP Realty Trust, Inc. FBRT 42/100 Developing
37 Granite Point Mortgage Trust In GPMT 42/100 Developing
38 Advanced Flower Capital Inc. AFCG 40/100 Developing

See every Mortgage REITs company ranked by moat score →

How CIM scores on the Lender Specialized defenses

Funding & Return Stability

Score 47 · 22% of the moat score

A lender without deposits buys all of its funding, so its first test is whether the business still earns a decent return when that funding gets dearer.

Lending Advantage

Score 47 · 18% of the moat score

Outside banking, a lending advantage usually comes from origination: a channel or a data edge that finds good borrowers more cheaply than rivals, or a niche such as subprime auto, student loans or agency mortgages where experience in underwriting and servicing is hard to copy.

Capital Strength

Score 46 · 20% of the moat score

Without deposit insurance or a central-bank backstop, equity is what keeps a lender in business when its lenders get nervous.

Cost Discipline

Score 53 · 16% of the moat score

Origination, servicing and collections are largely fixed-cost operations, so scale and automation decide how much of the spread survives to the bottom line.

Revenue Diversification

Score 29 · 14% of the moat score

A lender that earns only on the spread of one product is exposed to that product's cycle and to the market that funds it.

Risk Management

Score 52 · 10% of the moat score

Credit losses at a non-bank lender arrive late and all at once, and with borrowed funding they can turn into a liquidity problem in weeks.

How each Lender Specialized defense is measured, in full →

Understanding CIM's moat

What is Chimera Investment Corporation's moat score?

Chimera Investment Corporation (CIM) scores 46 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as developing. It ranks #34 of 49 scored companies in REIT - Mortgage, the top 69%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 66 companies in REIT - Mortgage. Its strongest defense is Cost Discipline (53/100) and its weakest is Revenue Diversification (29/100).

How does Chimera Investment Corporation compare with other REIT - Mortgage companies?

Chimera Investment Corporation ranks #34 of 49 scored companies in REIT - Mortgage by moat score. The widest moat in REIT - Mortgage is AGNC Investment Corp. - Deposit (AGNCM) at 73/100. The companies ranked closest are Cherry Hill Mortgage Investment (CHMI) at 48 just above it and ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. (ARR) at 44 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Lender Specialized 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 66 companies in REIT - Mortgage. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Chimera Investment Corporation scored with the Lender Specialized template?

Card and instalment lenders, mortgage originators and mortgage REITs make money the way a bank does, by earning more on what they lend than they pay for the money they lend, but they do not take deposits. They borrow in the debt markets instead: securitisations, warehouse lines, repo and bonds, money that has to be refinanced and repriced as rates move. The Lender template scores what decides whether such a business lasts: how well its returns hold up as funding costs change, what it lends against, how much equity stands behind the book, and whether it has been pricing credit honestly.

Which competitive defenses are measured for Chimera Investment Corporation?

The Lender Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and CIM scores: Funding & Return Stability (47), Lending Advantage (47), Capital Strength (46), Cost Discipline (53), Revenue Diversification (29), Risk Management (52). 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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