Hamilton Lane Incorporated HLNE

Competitive advantage analysis · financial-services

Asset Management Specialized
Overall moat score
64/100
Moderate

About Hamilton Lane Incorporated

Hamilton Lane Incorporated is a private equity and venture capital firm specializing in early venture, emerging growth, turnaround, middle market, mature, mid-venture, bridge, buyout, distressed/vulture, loan, mezzanine in growth capital companies. The firm manages alternative investment strategies like direct credit, direct, fund of fund, evergreen and real assets. For primary and secondary fund of fund investments, the firm focuses to … Full HLNE analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • High Return on Equity Return on equity ranks highly vs peers (score 0.94).
  • Sticky AUM Base Revenue stickiness is high (stability score 0.88).

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
63

Where HLNE ranks in Asset Management

Hamilton Lane Incorporated ranks #25 of 173 scored companies in Asset Management by moat score — the top 14%. The widest moat in the group is Sound Point Meridian Capital Inc (SPMC) at 77/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near HLNE in Asset Management
# Company Moat score Rating
21 Nuveen Multi-Asset Income Fund NMAI 65/100 Moderate
22 Sixth Street Specialty Lending, TSLX 65/100 Moderate
23 Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Corp NCDL 64/100 Moderate
24 DoubleLine Yield Opportunities Fund DLY 64/100 Moderate
25 Hamilton Lane Incorporated HLNE 64/100 Moderate
26 Neuberger Berman Next Generation Connectivity Fund Inc NBXG 63/100 Moderate
27 State Street Corporation STT 63/100 Moderate
28 Hennessy Advisors, Inc. HNNA 63/100 Moderate
29 Ameriprise Financial, Inc. AMP 63/100 Moderate

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

How HLNE scores on the Asset Management Specialized defenses

Fee Revenue Quality

Score 63 · 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 75 · 18% of the moat score

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

Compensation Discipline

Score 44 · 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 80 · 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 54 · 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 HLNE's moat

What is Hamilton Lane Incorporated's moat score?

Hamilton Lane Incorporated (HLNE) scores 64 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #25 of 173 scored companies in Asset Management, the top 14%. 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 (80/100) and its weakest is Compensation Discipline (44/100).

How does Hamilton Lane Incorporated compare with other Asset Management companies?

Hamilton Lane Incorporated ranks #25 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 DoubleLine Yield Opportunities Fund (DLY) at 64 just above it and Neuberger Berman Next Generation Connectivity Fund Inc (NBXG) 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 174 companies in Asset Management. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Hamilton Lane Incorporated 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 Hamilton Lane Incorporated?

The Asset Management Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and HLNE scores: Fee Revenue Quality (63), Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness (75), Compensation Discipline (44), Capital Efficiency (80), Earnings Quality & Cash Conversion (57), Balance Sheet Strength (54). 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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