Prospect Capital Corporation PSEC

Competitive advantage analysis · financial-services

Asset Management Specialized
Overall moat score
59/100
Moderate

About Prospect Capital Corporation

Prospect Capital Corporation is a business development company. It specializes in middle market, mature, mezzanine finance, later stage, emerging growth, leveraged buyouts, refinancing, acquisitions, recapitalizations, turnaround, growth capital, development, capital expenditures and subordinated debt tranches of collateralized loan obligations, cash flow term loans, market place lending and bridge transactions. It also makes real estate investments particularly in multi-family residential real … Full PSEC analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Lean Compensation Structure Compensation discipline is strong (cost efficiency score 0.88).
  • Premium Fee Margins Fee margin quality is strong (score 0.88).

Key risks

  • Below-Peer Return on Equity Return on equity lags peers (score 0.36).
  • AUM Retention Risk Revenue stickiness is low (stability 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
67

Where PSEC ranks in Asset Management

Prospect Capital Corporation ranks #52 of 173 scored companies in Asset Management by moat score — the top 30%. The widest moat in the group is Sound Point Meridian Capital Inc (SPMC) at 77/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near PSEC in Asset Management
# Company Moat score Rating
48 Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund MSDL 60/100 Moderate
49 Nuveen Dynamic Municipal Opportunities Fund NDMO 60/100 Moderate
50 Victory Capital Holdings, Inc. VCTR 60/100 Moderate
51 Kayne Anderson BDC Inc KBDC 60/100 Moderate
52 Prospect Capital Corporation PSEC 59/100 Moderate
53 Main Street Capital Corporation MAIN 59/100 Moderate
54 Beneficient BENF 58/100 Moderate
55 BlackRock, Inc. BLK 58/100 Moderate
56 FS KKR Capital Corp. FSK 58/100 Moderate

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

How PSEC scores on the Asset Management Specialized defenses

Fee Revenue Quality

Score 67 · 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 57 · 18% of the moat score

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

Compensation Discipline

Score 82 · 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 38 · 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 69 · 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 36 · 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 PSEC's moat

What is Prospect Capital Corporation's moat score?

Prospect Capital Corporation (PSEC) scores 59 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #52 of 173 scored companies in Asset Management, the top 30%. 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 Compensation Discipline (82/100) and its weakest is Balance Sheet Strength (36/100).

How does Prospect Capital Corporation compare with other Asset Management companies?

Prospect Capital Corporation ranks #52 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 Kayne Anderson BDC Inc (KBDC) at 60 just above it and Main Street Capital Corporation (MAIN) at 59 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 Prospect Capital Corporation 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 Prospect Capital Corporation?

The Asset Management Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and PSEC scores: Fee Revenue Quality (67), Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness (57), Compensation Discipline (82), Capital Efficiency (38), Earnings Quality & Cash Conversion (69), Balance Sheet Strength (36). 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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