audit moat

Competitive moat — does the company have a durable advantage?

When to use

Buffett: "Only invest in companies with durable competitive advantages." Assess whether ROIC consistently exceeds the cost of capital, with stable margins.

Quick Start

# Full moat assessment
audit moat

# Custom discount rate
audit moat --wacc 0.12

# Custom tax rate
audit moat --tax 0.25

# Only last 5 years
audit moat --years 2020-2024

Command

audit moat [--years xxxx-yyyy] [--period q1|h1|9m|annual] [--wacc 0.xx] [--tax 0.xx] [--help]

Parameter	Description	Default
`--years`	Year range	All years
`--period`	Fiscal period	annual
`--wacc`	Discount rate	0.10 (10%)
`--tax`	Tax rate for NOPAT	0.21 (21%)

Core Metrics

Metric	Formula	Meaning
ROIC Mean		Average capital return
ROIC Stability		Return consistency (CoV)
Gross Margin CoV		Pricing power stability
Revenue R²	Linear regression	Growth consistency
Economic Moat		Value creation spread

Where:

,
when the sum is non-negative; the raw sum (no tax) when negative. Losses have no tax shield.
Negative NOPAT produces negative ROIC, which participates in the mean.

Key signals:

ROIC > WACC → has moat
ROIC < WACC → no moat, destroying value
ROIC negative → operating loss, no moat

Advisory

ROIC Quality

Status	Threshold
`[+]`	Median > 15%
`[~]`	Otherwise

ROIC Stability

Status	Threshold
`[+]`	CoV < 10%
`[~]`	Otherwise

Gross Margin Stability

Status	Threshold	Threshold
`[+]`	CoV < 10%	CoV < 10%
`[~]`	Otherwise	Otherwise

Economic Moat

Status	Metric	Threshold
`[+]`	> 5%	> 5%
`[~]`	Otherwise	Otherwise

Field IDs

Industrial

Name	Industrial
Total Revenue	income:1101
Gross Profit	income:1104
Operating Profit	income:1116
Asset Impairment Loss	income:1113
Stockholders' Equity	balance_sheet:1371
Short Term Debt	balance_sheet:1349
Long Term Debt	balance_sheet:1358
Cash and Cash Equivalents	balance_sheet:1304
Short Term Investments	balance_sheet:1305
Long Term Investments	balance_sheet:1324
Financial Assets	balance_sheet:1329

Banking

Name	Banking
Total Revenue	income:2101

Insurance

Name	Insurance
Total Revenue	income:3101

Industry Routing

Metric	Industrial	Banking	Insurance
ROIC Mean	Computed	`-`	`-`
ROIC Stability	Computed	`-`	`-`
Gross Margin CoV	Computed	`-`	`-`
Revenue R²	Computed	Computed	Computed
Economic Moat	Computed	`-`	`-`

Banking/Insurance: only Revenue R² is available.

Output Example

MOAT ASSESSMENT

TICKER: [US.AAPL - Apple Inc.]
PERIOD: [2020-ANNUAL ~ 2024-ANNUAL]

Parameter    Value
------------------
WACC            10%

[+] ROIC Quality: Median 27.1% (Median > 15% = high returns)
    ↳ Median > 15% = high returns
[+] ROIC Stability: CoV 8.5% (CoV < 10% = highly stable)
    ↳ CoV < 10% = highly stable
[+] Gross Margin Stability: 2.1% (CoV < 10% = stable pricing power)
    ↳ CoV < 10% = stable pricing power
[+] Economic Moat (ROIC-WACC): 17.1% (> 5% = creating economic value)
    ↳ > 5% = creating economic value

[ANALYSIS]
Metric      Gross Margin     ROIC
---------------------------------
Mean               42.1%    28.4%
Median             41.5%    27.1%
Max                45.0%    35.3%
Min                38.0%    22.0%
StdDev              2.8%     5.2%
CoV                 6.7%    18.0%
Slope           0.80%/yr 2.30%/yr
R²                   72%      85%

[DATA]
Period        Revenue  Gross Profit    GM%    ROIC  ROIC-WACC
-------------------------------------------------------------
2020 ANNUAL   340.00B       140.00B  41.2%       -          -
2021 ANNUAL   360.00B       150.00B  41.7%   35.3%      25.3%
...

Commands