Cohen & Steers, Inc. is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides its services to institutional investors, including pension funds, endowments, and foundations. It manages separate client-focused equity, fixed income, multi-asset, and commodity portfolios through its subsidiaries. The firm launches and manages equity, fixed income, balanced, and multi-asset mutual funds through its subsidiaries. Through …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
High Return on EquityReturn on equity ranks highly vs peers (score 0.92).
Sticky AUM BaseRevenue stickiness is high (stability score 0.87).
Key risks
High Compensation CostsCompensation costs relative to peers are high (score 0.34).
Weak Cash ConversionCash conversion is weak (score 0.23).
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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Cohen & Steers Inc ranks #91 of 173
scored companies in Asset Management by moat score — the top 53%.
The widest moat in the group is Sound Point Meridian Capital Inc (SPMC)
at 77/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near CNS in Asset Management
How CNS scores on the Asset Management Specialized defenses
Fee Revenue Quality
Score 51
· 20% of the moat score
Fee revenue quality is the ability to charge above the industry's falling average and keep charging it.
Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness
Score 56
· 18% of the moat score
Assets under management leave far more easily than they arrive, and the fee leaves with them.
Compensation Discipline
Score 34
· 18% of the moat score
Compensation is the largest expense in asset management and the one that decides whether a good year ever reaches shareholders.
Capital Efficiency
Score 69
· 20% of the moat score
Asset managers are asset-light: with little capital employed, a healthy business should earn a very high return on equity, and a merely average one is a real warning.
Earnings Quality & Cash Conversion
Score 20
· 14% of the moat score
Reported profits here can be flattered by performance fees, seed-capital gains and consolidated fund accounting, none of which recur reliably.
Balance Sheet Strength
Score 56
· 10% of the moat score
Because the business needs so little capital, an asset manager carrying meaningful debt has usually borrowed to buy another manager or to fund distributions.
Cohen & Steers Inc (CNS) scores 48 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as developing. It ranks #91 of 173 scored companies in Asset Management, the top 53%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 174 companies in Asset Management. Its strongest defense is Capital Efficiency (69/100) and its weakest is Earnings Quality & Cash Conversion (20/100).
How does Cohen & Steers Inc compare with other Asset Management companies?
Cohen & Steers Inc ranks #91 of 173 scored companies in Asset Management by moat score. The widest moat in Asset Management is Sound Point Meridian Capital Inc (SPMC) at 77/100. The companies ranked closest are Vinci Partners Investments Ltd. (VINP) at 48 just above it and P10, Inc. (PX) at 48 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Asset Management 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 174 companies in Asset Management. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Cohen & Steers Inc scored with the Asset Management Specialized template?
An asset manager owns almost nothing. It charges a fee on someone else's money, pays much of that fee out in compensation, and keeps the remainder — so its economics turn on the fee rate it can defend, whether client money stays, and how much revenue survives the bonus pool. The Asset Management template scores those questions rather than the balance sheet, which in this industry is largely beside the point.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Cohen & Steers Inc?
The Asset Management Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and CNS scores: Fee Revenue Quality (51), Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness (56), Compensation Discipline (34), Capital Efficiency (69), Earnings Quality & Cash Conversion (20), Balance Sheet Strength (56). 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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