Robinhood Markets, Inc. HOOD

Competitive advantage analysis · financial-services

Asset Management Specialized
Overall moat score
69/100
Moderate

About Robinhood Markets, Inc.

Robinhood Markets, Inc. operates financial services platform in the United States. The company's platform allows users to invest in stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and American depository receipts. It offers fractional trading, recurring investments, access to investing on margin, fully-paid securities lending, cash sweep, instant withdrawals, retirement program, around-the-clock trading, joint investing accounts, event contracts, future contract services, and short selling. … Full HOOD analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Lean Compensation Structure Compensation discipline is strong (cost efficiency score 0.93).
  • Premium Fee Margins Fee margin quality is strong (score 0.93).

Key risks

  • Elevated Leverage Leverage is elevated vs peers (score 0.35).
  • Volatile Capital Returns Return volatility is elevated (score 0.28).

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
71

Where HOOD ranks in Capital Markets

Robinhood Markets, Inc. ranks #11 of 67 scored companies in Capital Markets by moat score — the top 16%. The widest moat in the group is Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IBKR) at 83/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near HOOD in Capital Markets
# Company Moat score Rating
7 Virtu Financial, Inc. VIRT 76/100 Strong
8 PJT Partners Inc. PJT 73/100 Moderate
9 Morgan Stanley MS 70/100 Moderate
10 Marex Group plc MRX 70/100 Moderate
11 Robinhood Markets, Inc. HOOD 69/100 Moderate
12 Oppenheimer Holdings, Inc. OPY 69/100 Moderate
13 Piper Sandler Companies PIPR 69/100 Moderate
14 Houlihan Lokey, Inc. HLI 68/100 Moderate
15 Stifel Financial Corporation SF 68/100 Moderate

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

How HOOD scores on the Asset Management Specialized defenses

Fee Revenue Quality

Score 70 · 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 66 · 18% of the moat score

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

Compensation Discipline

Score 92 · 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 64 · 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 62 · 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 44 · 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 HOOD's moat

What is Robinhood Markets, Inc.'s moat score?

Robinhood Markets, Inc. (HOOD) scores 68 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #11 of 67 scored companies in Capital Markets, the top 16%. 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 Compensation Discipline (92/100) and its weakest is Balance Sheet Strength (44/100).

How does Robinhood Markets, Inc. compare with other Capital Markets companies?

Robinhood Markets, Inc. ranks #11 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 Marex Group plc (MRX) at 70 just above it and Oppenheimer Holdings, Inc. (OPY) at 68 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 Robinhood Markets, 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 Robinhood Markets, Inc.?

The Asset Management Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and HOOD scores: Fee Revenue Quality (70), Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness (66), Compensation Discipline (92), Capital Efficiency (64), Earnings Quality & Cash Conversion (62), Balance Sheet Strength (44). 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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