Westwood Holdings Group Inc WHG

Competitive advantage analysis · financial-services

Asset Management Specialized
Overall moat score
49/100
Developing

About Westwood Holdings Group Inc

Westwood Holdings Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, manages investment assets and provides services for its clients. The company operates in two segments, Advisory and Trust. The Advisory segment provides investment advisory services to corporate retirement plans, public retirement plans, endowments, foundations, individuals, and the Westwood Funds; and investment sub-advisory services to mutual funds, pooled investment vehicles, and its Trust segment. … Full WHG analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Sticky AUM Base Revenue stickiness is high (stability score 0.89).
  • Conservative Leverage Leverage is conservative vs peers (score 0.81).

Key risks

  • Fee Margin Pressure Fee margin quality is below peers (score 0.14).
  • High Compensation Costs Compensation costs relative to peers are high (score 0.14).

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

Upgrade to unlock the signals and evidence behind each defense.

Premium access

Unlock full defense analysis

Get key signals, strengths, and risks for every moat dimension.

Upgrade to Premium Unlock all moat defenses and evidence.

Fee Revenue Quality

Developing
38

Where WHG ranks in Asset Management

Westwood Holdings Group Inc ranks #89 of 173 scored companies in Asset Management by moat score — the top 51%. The widest moat in the group is Sound Point Meridian Capital Inc (SPMC) at 77/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near WHG in Asset Management
# Company Moat score Rating
85 Blackstone Inc. BX 50/100 Developing
86 Ares Management Corporation ARES 49/100 Developing
87 240905 PTA 49/100 Developing
88 Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc. CGBD 49/100 Developing
89 Westwood Holdings Group Inc WHG 49/100 Developing
90 Vinci Partners Investments Ltd. VINP 49/100 Developing
91 Cohen & Steers Inc CNS 48/100 Developing
92 P10, Inc. PX 48/100 Developing
93 Golub Capital BDC, Inc. GBDC 48/100 Developing

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

How WHG scores on the Asset Management Specialized defenses

Fee Revenue Quality

Score 38 · 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 67 · 18% of the moat score

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

Compensation Discipline

Score 32 · 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 47 · 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 54 · 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 66 · 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 WHG's moat

What is Westwood Holdings Group Inc's moat score?

Westwood Holdings Group Inc (WHG) scores 49 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as developing. It ranks #89 of 173 scored companies in Asset Management, the top 51%. 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 Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness (67/100) and its weakest is Compensation Discipline (32/100).

How does Westwood Holdings Group Inc compare with other Asset Management companies?

Westwood Holdings Group Inc ranks #89 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 Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc. (CGBD) at 49 just above it and Vinci Partners Investments Ltd. (VINP) at 48 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 Westwood Holdings Group 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 Westwood Holdings Group Inc?

The Asset Management Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and WHG scores: Fee Revenue Quality (38), Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness (67), Compensation Discipline (32), Capital Efficiency (47), Earnings Quality & Cash Conversion (54), Balance Sheet Strength (66). 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.

Send Feedback
Please select a category.
0/1000