NMI Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides private mortgage guaranty insurance services in the United States. It provides primary mortgage insurance services; and outsourced loan review services to mortgage loan originators. The company serves national and regional mortgage banks, money center banks, credit unions, community banks, builder-owned mortgage lenders, internet-sourced lenders, and other non-bank lenders. NMI Holdings, Inc. was …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Stable Underwriting Performance Through CyclesUnderwriting stability score is 0.88, demonstrating consistent risk selection and reserving discipline through market cycles.
Superior Returns on FloatFloat investment returns are strong (signal score 0.91), with ROA at 10.82% vs peers — investment income amplifies underwriting profit.
Key risks
Declining Premium Growth TrendPremium growth trend is weak (signal score 0.24), 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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How NMIH scores on the Insurance & Reinsurance defenses
Underwriting Discipline
Score 81
· 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 86
· 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 41
· 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 95
· 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 79
· 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 93
· 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.
NMI Holdings Inc (NMIH) scores 78 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as strong. It ranks #1 of 19 scored companies in Insurance - Specialty, the top 5%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 18 companies in Insurance - Specialty. Its strongest defense is Capital Strength & Solvency (95/100) and its weakest is Pricing Power (41/100).
How does NMI Holdings Inc compare with other Insurance - Specialty companies?
NMI Holdings Inc ranks #1 of 19 scored companies in Insurance - Specialty by moat score. That is the widest moat in Insurance - Specialty. The companies ranked closest are MGIC Investment Corporation (MTG) at 73 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 18 companies in Insurance - Specialty. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is NMI Holdings 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 NMI Holdings Inc?
The Insurance & Reinsurance template measures 6 defenses, and NMIH scores: Underwriting Discipline (81), Float Investment Quality (86), Pricing Power (41), Capital Strength & Solvency (95), Operational Efficiency (79), Scale & Diversification (93). 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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