Kinsale Capital Group, Inc. engages in the provision of property and casualty insurance products in the United States. The company's commercial lines offerings include commercial property, excess casualty, general casualty, small business casualty, construction, allied health, small business property, products liability, entertainment, commercial auto, energy, excess professional, life sciences, inland marine, professional liability, environmental, health care, management liability, public entity, …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Top-Quartile Underwriting MarginsGross margin at 52.5% (top 16%) and operating margin at 33.8% (top 11%) reflect strong underwriting discipline.
Superior Returns on FloatFloat investment returns are strong (signal score 0.91), with ROA at 9.22% vs peers — investment income amplifies underwriting profit.
Key risks
Declining Premium Growth TrendPremium growth trend is weak (signal score 0.18), indicating potential market share erosion or soft pricing environment.
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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Where KNSL ranks in Insurance - Property & Casualty
Kinsale Capital Group, Inc. ranks #2 of 44
scored companies in Insurance - Property & Casualty by moat score — the top 5%.
The widest moat in the group is Palomar Holdings, Inc. (PLMR)
at 76/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near KNSL in Insurance - Property & Casualty
How KNSL scores on the Insurance & Reinsurance defenses
Underwriting Discipline
Score 76
· 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 81
· 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 56
· 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 74
· 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 76
· 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 67
· 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.
Kinsale Capital Group, Inc. (KNSL) scores 72 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #2 of 44 scored companies in Insurance - Property & Casualty, the top 5%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 45 companies in Insurance - Property & Casualty. Its strongest defense is Float Investment Quality (81/100) and its weakest is Pricing Power (56/100).
How does Kinsale Capital Group, Inc. compare with other Insurance - Property & Casualty companies?
Kinsale Capital Group, Inc. ranks #2 of 44 scored companies in Insurance - Property & Casualty by moat score. The widest moat in Insurance - Property & Casualty is Palomar Holdings, Inc. (PLMR) at 76/100. The companies ranked closest are Palomar Holdings, Inc. (PLMR) at 76 just above it and Hartford Financial Services Gro (HIG) at 72 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 45 companies in Insurance - Property & Casualty. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Kinsale Capital Group, 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 Kinsale Capital Group, Inc.?
The Insurance & Reinsurance template measures 6 defenses, and KNSL scores: Underwriting Discipline (76), Float Investment Quality (81), Pricing Power (56), Capital Strength & Solvency (74), Operational Efficiency (76), Scale & Diversification (67). 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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