SRH Total Return Fund, Inc. STEW

Competitive advantage analysis · financial-services

Asset Management Specialized
Overall moat score
61/100
Moderate

About SRH Total Return Fund, Inc.

SRH Total Return Fund, Inc. is a closed-ended balanced mutual fund launched and managed by Paralel Advisors LLC. Rocky Mountain Advisers, LLC serves as the Fund's sub-adviser. The fund invests in equity and fixed-income markets across the globe. It seeks to invest in securities of companies operating across diversified industries. The fund primarily invests in dividend-paying value stocks of companies … Full STEW analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Premium Fee Margins Fee margin quality is strong (score 0.81).
  • Lean Compensation Structure Compensation discipline is strong (cost efficiency score 0.81).

Key risks

  • AUM Retention Risk Revenue stickiness is low (stability score 0.03).

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

Strong
86

Where STEW ranks in Asset Management

SRH Total Return Fund, Inc. ranks #44 of 173 scored companies in Asset Management by moat score — the top 25%. The widest moat in the group is Sound Point Meridian Capital Inc (SPMC) at 77/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near STEW in Asset Management
# Company Moat score Rating
40 Western Asset Diversified Income Fund WDI 61/100 Moderate
41 WhiteHorse Finance, Inc. WHF 61/100 Moderate
42 Federated Hermes, Inc. FHI 61/100 Moderate
43 New Mountain Finance Corporatio NMFC 61/100 Moderate
44 SRH Total Return Fund, Inc. STEW 61/100 Moderate
45 Gladstone Investment Corporatio GAIN 60/100 Moderate
46 Guggenheim Active Allocation Fund GUG 60/100 Moderate
47 WisdomTree, Inc. WT 60/100 Moderate
48 Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund MSDL 60/100 Moderate

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

How STEW scores on the Asset Management Specialized defenses

Fee Revenue Quality

Score 86 · 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 29 · 18% of the moat score

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

Compensation Discipline

Score 73 · 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 46 · 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 51 · 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 89 · 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 STEW's moat

What is SRH Total Return Fund, Inc.'s moat score?

SRH Total Return Fund, Inc. (STEW) scores 61 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #44 of 173 scored companies in Asset Management, the top 25%. 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 Balance Sheet Strength (89/100) and its weakest is Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness (29/100).

How does SRH Total Return Fund, Inc. compare with other Asset Management companies?

SRH Total Return Fund, Inc. ranks #44 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 New Mountain Finance Corporatio (NMFC) at 61 just above it and Gladstone Investment Corporatio (GAIN) at 60 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 SRH Total Return Fund, Inc. 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 SRH Total Return Fund, Inc.?

The Asset Management Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and STEW scores: Fee Revenue Quality (86), Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness (29), Compensation Discipline (73), Capital Efficiency (46), Earnings Quality & Cash Conversion (51), Balance Sheet Strength (89). 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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