Stifel Financial Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated that provides retail and institutional wealth management, and investment banking services to individual, corporations, municipalities, and institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Global Wealth Management, Institutional Group, and Other. The company provides private client services, …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Sticky AUM BaseRevenue stickiness is high (stability score 0.87).
Strong Cash ConversionCash conversion quality is high (score 0.79).
Key risks
Margin Erosion TrendMargin trend is deteriorating (score 0.35).
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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Stifel Financial Corporation ranks #15 of 67
scored companies in Capital Markets by moat score — the top 22%.
The widest moat in the group is Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IBKR)
at 83/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near SF in Capital Markets
How SF scores on the Asset Management Specialized defenses
Fee Revenue Quality
Score 75
· 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 83
· 18% of the moat score
Assets under management leave far more easily than they arrive, and the fee leaves with them.
Compensation Discipline
Score 51
· 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 59
· 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 81
· 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 55
· 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.
What is Stifel Financial Corporation's moat score?
Stifel Financial Corporation (SF) scores 68 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #15 of 67 scored companies in Capital Markets, the top 22%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 74 companies in Capital Markets. Its strongest defense is Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness (83/100) and its weakest is Compensation Discipline (51/100).
How does Stifel Financial Corporation compare with other Capital Markets companies?
Stifel Financial Corporation ranks #15 of 67 scored companies in Capital Markets by moat score. The widest moat in Capital Markets is Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IBKR) at 83/100. The companies ranked closest are Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (HLI) at 68 just above it and Evercore Inc. (EVR) at 67 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 74 companies in Capital Markets. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Stifel Financial 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 Stifel Financial Corporation?
The Asset Management Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and SF scores: Fee Revenue Quality (75), Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness (83), Compensation Discipline (51), Capital Efficiency (59), Earnings Quality & Cash Conversion (81), Balance Sheet Strength (55). 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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