Hercules Capital, Inc. is a business development company. The firm specializing in providing private equity, venture debt, and growth capital to privately held venture capital-backed companies at all stages of development from mid venture to expansion stage including select publicly listed companies and select special opportunity companies that require additional capital to fund acquisitions, recapitalizations and refinancing and established-stage companies. …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
High Return on EquityReturn on equity ranks highly vs peers (score 0.77).
Durable Capital ReturnsReturn durability is high (score 0.72).
Key risks
Weak Cash ConversionCash conversion is weak (score 0.17).
Elevated LeverageLeverage is elevated vs peers (score 0.34).
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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Hercules Capital, Inc. ranks #63 of 173
scored companies in Asset Management by moat score — the top 36%.
The widest moat in the group is Sound Point Meridian Capital Inc (SPMC)
at 77/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near HTGC in Asset Management
How HTGC scores on the Asset Management Specialized defenses
Fee Revenue Quality
Score 55
· 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 40
· 18% of the moat score
Assets under management leave far more easily than they arrive, and the fee leaves with them.
Compensation Discipline
Score 65
· 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 75
· 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 39
· 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 50
· 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.
Hercules Capital, Inc. (HTGC) scores 55 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #63 of 173 scored companies in Asset Management, the top 36%. 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 (75/100) and its weakest is Earnings Quality & Cash Conversion (39/100).
How does Hercules Capital, Inc. compare with other Asset Management companies?
Hercules Capital, Inc. ranks #63 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 Brookfield Asset Management Inc (BAM) at 56 just above it and Patria Investments Limited (PAX) at 55 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 Hercules Capital, 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 Hercules Capital, Inc.?
The Asset Management Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and HTGC scores: Fee Revenue Quality (55), Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness (40), Compensation Discipline (65), Capital Efficiency (75), Earnings Quality & Cash Conversion (39), Balance Sheet Strength (50). 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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