Cohen & Company Inc. COHN

Competitive advantage analysis · financial-services

Asset Management Specialized
Overall moat score
63/100
Moderate

About Cohen & Company Inc.

Cohen & Company Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to individuals and institutions. It manages separate client-focused fixed income portfolios. Institutional Financial Markets, Inc. also manages funds and collateralized debt obligations for its clients. It invests in the fixed income and alternative investment markets across the globe. The firm's fixed income investments include … Full COHN analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • High Return on Equity Return on equity ranks highly vs peers (score 0.87).
  • Lean Compensation Structure Compensation discipline is strong (cost efficiency score 0.72).

Key risks

  • AUM Retention Risk Revenue stickiness is low (stability score 0.26).
  • Elevated Leverage Leverage is elevated vs peers (score 0.35).

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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Fee Revenue Quality

Moderate
62

Where COHN ranks in Capital Markets

Cohen & Company Inc. ranks #19 of 67 scored companies in Capital Markets by moat score — the top 28%. The widest moat in the group is Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IBKR) at 83/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near COHN in Capital Markets
# Company Moat score Rating
15 Stifel Financial Corporation SF 68/100 Moderate
16 Evercore Inc. EVR 67/100 Moderate
17 Jefferies Financial Group Inc. JEF 66/100 Moderate
18 BGC Group, Inc. BGC 66/100 Moderate
19 Cohen & Company Inc. COHN 63/100 Moderate
20 LPL Financial Holdings Inc. LPLA 63/100 Moderate
21 XP Inc. XP 63/100 Moderate
22 Moelis & Company MC 62/100 Moderate
23 Lazard, Inc. LAZ 59/100 Moderate

See every Asset Management & Capital Markets company ranked by moat score →

How COHN scores on the Asset Management Specialized defenses

Fee Revenue Quality

Score 62 · 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 47 · 18% of the moat score

Assets under management leave far more easily than they arrive, and the fee leaves with them.

Compensation Discipline

Score 72 · 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 74 · 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 57 · 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 66 · 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.

How each Asset Management Specialized defense is measured, in full →

Understanding COHN's moat

What is Cohen & Company Inc.'s moat score?

Cohen & Company Inc. (COHN) scores 63 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #19 of 67 scored companies in Capital Markets, the top 28%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 74 companies in Capital Markets. Its strongest defense is Capital Efficiency (74/100) and its weakest is Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness (47/100).

How does Cohen & Company Inc. compare with other Capital Markets companies?

Cohen & Company Inc. ranks #19 of 67 scored companies in Capital Markets by moat score. The widest moat in Capital Markets is Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IBKR) at 83/100. The companies ranked closest are BGC Group, Inc. (BGC) at 66 just above it and LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (LPLA) at 63 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 74 companies in Capital Markets. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Cohen & Company 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 & Company Inc.?

The Asset Management Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and COHN scores: Fee Revenue Quality (62), Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness (47), Compensation Discipline (72), Capital Efficiency (74), Earnings Quality & Cash Conversion (57), Balance Sheet Strength (66). 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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