Otter Tail Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in electric utility, manufacturing, and plastic pipe businesses in the United States. It operates through three segments: Electric, Manufacturing, and Plastics. The Electric segment generates, purchases, transmissions, distributes, and sells electric energy in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota; and operates as a participant in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator markets. This …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Earning the Allowed ROEReturn on equity is strong vs peers (score 0.80), suggesting rate-base growth is translating into earnings.
Otter Tail Corporation ranks #3 of 13
scored companies in Utilities - Diversified by moat score — the top 23%.
The widest moat in the group is Brookfield Infrastructure Partn (BIP)
at 69/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near OTTR in Utilities - Diversified
How OTTR scores on the Regulated Utilities defenses
Regulatory Franchise
Score 46
· 25% of the moat score
The franchise is the moat, granted rather than earned: an exclusive right to serve a territory in exchange for regulated prices and an obligation to supply.
Rate-Base Return Quality
Score 65
· 20% of the moat score
A utility earns an allowed return on the capital invested in its network, the rate base.
Dividend Sustainability
Score 66
· 18% of the moat score
Utilities are owned largely for income, and the dividend is only as safe as the operating cash flow behind it.
Capital Structure Discipline
Score 91
· 17% of the moat score
Regulated utilities carry more debt than almost any other sector, which suits how predictable their revenue is but makes credit quality a core competitive asset.
Operational Efficiency
Score 92
· 12% of the moat score
Efficiency is unusually consequential under regulation.
Essential Service Resilience
Score 44
· 8% of the moat score
Electricity, gas and water are bought in a recession at close to the volume bought in an expansion, which is why utility revenue barely tracks the economic cycle.
Otter Tail Corporation (OTTR) scores 65 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #3 of 13 scored companies in Utilities - Diversified, the top 23%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 14 companies in Utilities - Diversified. Its strongest defense is Operational Efficiency (92/100) and its weakest is Essential Service Resilience (44/100).
How does Otter Tail Corporation compare with other Utilities - Diversified companies?
Otter Tail Corporation ranks #3 of 13 scored companies in Utilities - Diversified by moat score. The widest moat in Utilities - Diversified is Brookfield Infrastructure Partn (BIP) at 69/100. The companies ranked closest are UNITIL Corporation (UTL) at 66 just above it and Comp En De Mn Cemig (CIG-C) at 58 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Regulated Utilities 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 14 companies in Utilities - Diversified. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Otter Tail Corporation scored with the Regulated Utilities template?
A regulated utility is a legal monopoly whose prices are set by a regulator rather than by a market. It cannot raise prices at will and it cannot be undercut, so most of the usual questions about competitive advantage barely apply. What matters is the quality of the regulatory bargain: whether the company earns the return it is allowed, funds its capital programme cheaply, and sustains the dividend investors own it for.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Otter Tail Corporation?
The Regulated Utilities template measures 6 defenses, and OTTR scores: Regulatory Franchise (46), Rate-Base Return Quality (65), Dividend Sustainability (66), Capital Structure Discipline (91), Operational Efficiency (92), Essential Service Resilience (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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