Herbalife Ltd. HLF

Competitive advantage analysis · consumer-defensive

Corporate Default
Overall moat score
70/100
Moderate

About Herbalife Ltd.

Herbalife Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides health and wellness products in North America, Mexico, South and Central America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, China, and the Asia Pacific. It offers weight management products, including meal replacement, protein shakes, drink mixes, weight loss supplements, healthy snacks, and metabolism boosting teas; targeted nutrition products comprising functional beverages and dietary and nutritional … Full HLF analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Margins Consistently Above Peers Gross margin at 77.9% (top 6%) and operating margin at 9.6% (top 14%) indicate strong pricing power.
  • Margins Stable Across Cycles Operating margin volatility is low (stability score 0.77), demonstrating pricing resilience across cycles.

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

Strong
85

Where HLF ranks in Packaged Foods

Herbalife Ltd. ranks #14 of 73 scored companies in Packaged Foods by moat score — the top 19%. The widest moat in the group is McCormick & Company, Incorporat (MKC-V) at 79/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near HLF in Packaged Foods
# Company Moat score Rating
10 Central Garden & Pet Company CENTA 72/100 Moderate
11 The Campbell's Company CPB 70/100 Moderate
12 Nature's Sunshine Products, Inc NATR 70/100 Moderate
13 J & J Snack Foods Corp. JJSF 70/100 Moderate
14 Herbalife Ltd. HLF 70/100 Moderate
15 Lifeway Foods, Inc. LWAY 69/100 Moderate
16 Nomad Foods Limited NOMD 69/100 Moderate
17 FitLife Brands, Inc. FTLF 68/100 Moderate
18 Pilgrim's Pride Corporation PPC 68/100 Moderate

See every General Corporate company ranked by moat score →

How HLF scores on the Corporate Default defenses

Pricing Power

Score 85 · 20% of the moat score

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

Cost Advantage

Score 52 · 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 68 · 15% of the moat score

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

Capital Efficiency

Score 84 · 18% of the moat score

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

Resilience

Score 50 · 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 72 · 15% of the moat score

Scale matters only when it converts into economics.

How each Corporate Default defense is measured, in full →

Understanding HLF's moat

What is Herbalife Ltd.'s moat score?

Herbalife Ltd. (HLF) scores 70 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #14 of 73 scored companies in Packaged Foods, the top 19%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 72 companies in Packaged Foods. Its strongest defense is Pricing Power (85/100) and its weakest is Resilience (50/100).

How does Herbalife Ltd. compare with other Packaged Foods companies?

Herbalife Ltd. ranks #14 of 73 scored companies in Packaged Foods by moat score. The widest moat in Packaged Foods is McCormick & Company, Incorporat (MKC-V) at 79/100. The companies ranked closest are J & J Snack Foods Corp. (JJSF) at 70 just above it and Lifeway Foods, Inc. (LWAY) at 69 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 72 companies in Packaged Foods. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Herbalife Ltd. 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 Herbalife Ltd.?

The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and HLF scores: Pricing Power (85), Cost Advantage (52), Customer Stickiness (68), Capital Efficiency (84), Resilience (50), Scale & Market Position (72). 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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