Goosehead Insurance, Inc. GSHD

Competitive advantage analysis · financial-services

Insurance & Reinsurance
Overall moat score
55/100
Moderate

About Goosehead Insurance, Inc.

Goosehead Insurance, Inc. operates as a holding company for Goosehead Financial, LLC that engages in the provision of personal lines insurance agency services in the United States. The company offers insurance service for homeowner's; automotive; dwelling property; flood, wind, and earthquake; excess liability or umbrella; general liability, and property and auto insurance for small businesses; life insurance; and motorcycle, recreational … Full GSHD analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Superior Returns on Float Float investment returns are strong (signal score 0.72), with ROA at 6.85% vs peers — investment income amplifies underwriting profit.
  • Lean Expense Ratio vs Peers Expense efficiency is strong (score 0.80), with operating margin at 20.4% vs peers.

Key risks

  • Below-Peer Return on Equity ROE is below insurance peers, which may reflect excess capital, sub-scale operations, elevated losses, or management inefficiency in deploying capital.
  • Volatile Capital Returns Signal Cat Exposure Capital adequacy stability is low (score 0.05), indicating elevated catastrophe or reserve cycle exposure.

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

Upgrade to unlock the signals and evidence behind each defense.

Premium access

Unlock full defense analysis

Get key signals, strengths, and risks for every moat dimension.

Upgrade to Premium Unlock all moat defenses and evidence.

Underwriting Discipline

Moderate
55

Where GSHD ranks in Insurance Brokers

Goosehead Insurance, Inc. ranks #12 of 21 scored companies in Insurance Brokers by moat score — the top 57%. The widest moat in the group is Brown & Brown, Inc. (BRO) at 82/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near GSHD in Insurance Brokers
# Company Moat score Rating
8 Willis Towers Watson Public Lim WTW 66/100 Moderate
9 Crawford & Company CRD-A 62/100 Moderate
10 Crawford & Company CRD-B 62/100 Moderate
11 eHealth, Inc. EHTH 61/100 Moderate
12 Goosehead Insurance, Inc. GSHD 55/100 Moderate
13 The Baldwin Insurance Group, In BWIN 50/100 Moderate
14 SelectQuote, Inc. SLQT 50/100 Moderate
15 Huize Holding Limited HUIZ 43/100 Developing
16 TIAN RUIXIANG Holdings Ltd TIRX 34/100 Developing

See every Insurance & Reinsurance company ranked by moat score →

How GSHD scores on the Insurance & Reinsurance defenses

Underwriting Discipline

Score 55 · 25% of the moat score

Underwriting discipline is the core insurance moat, and it consists mostly of the willingness to lose business.

Float Investment Quality

Score 64 · 20% of the moat score

Float is the money an insurer holds between collecting premiums and paying claims — capital it invests but does not own.

Pricing Power

Score 52 · 18% of the moat score

For an insurer, pricing power is the ability to push rate ahead of claims inflation and keep the policyholders anyway.

Capital Strength & Solvency

Score 5 · 17% of the moat score

Capital is what lets an insurer credibly promise to pay a claim that has not happened yet, and it is scrutinised by regulators and rating agencies alike.

Operational Efficiency

Score 86 · 12% of the moat score

The expense ratio — what it costs to acquire and administer a policy — is the half of the combined ratio management fully controls.

Scale & Diversification

Score 59 · 8% of the moat score

Diversification is a real economic advantage in insurance rather than a portfolio preference: risks spread across perils, geographies and lines are less likely to arrive at once, so the same capital supports more premium.

How each Insurance & Reinsurance defense is measured, in full →

Understanding GSHD's moat

What is Goosehead Insurance, Inc.'s moat score?

Goosehead Insurance, Inc. (GSHD) scores 55 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #12 of 21 scored companies in Insurance Brokers, the top 57%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 20 companies in Insurance Brokers. Its strongest defense is Operational Efficiency (86/100) and its weakest is Capital Strength & Solvency (5/100).

How does Goosehead Insurance, Inc. compare with other Insurance Brokers companies?

Goosehead Insurance, Inc. ranks #12 of 21 scored companies in Insurance Brokers by moat score. The widest moat in Insurance Brokers is Brown & Brown, Inc. (BRO) at 82/100. The companies ranked closest are eHealth, Inc. (EHTH) at 60 just above it and The Baldwin Insurance Group, In (BWIN) at 50 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Insurance & Reinsurance 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 20 companies in Insurance Brokers. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Goosehead Insurance, Inc. scored with the Insurance & Reinsurance template?

An insurer is paid before it knows what its product cost, and invests the money in the meantime. Profit therefore comes from two sources that must both work: pricing risk better than rivals, and earning a return on the float those premiums create. The Insurance template scores that pair, along with the capital that lets a company survive the year in which the losses arrive together.

Which competitive defenses are measured for Goosehead Insurance, Inc.?

The Insurance & Reinsurance template measures 6 defenses, and GSHD scores: Underwriting Discipline (55), Float Investment Quality (64), Pricing Power (52), Capital Strength & Solvency (5), Operational Efficiency (86), Scale & Diversification (59). 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.

Send Feedback
Please select a category.
0/1000