About MoatScope

Most stock research tools give you data — mountains of it. Financial statements, ratios, charts, analyst ratings, news feeds. What they don't give you is an answer to the two questions that matter most: Is this a good business? and Is it reasonably priced?

MoatScope was built to answer those questions directly. We wanted a tool that scored every stock on business quality, estimated what it was worth, and plotted the entire market on a single chart so you could see — at a glance — where quality and value intersect.

We couldn't find that tool, so we built it. The result is a platform that covers 2,600+ investable US common stocks with quality scores, moat ratings, and three-tier fair value estimates — all mapped on the Quality × Valuation scatter plot that sits at the core of everything we do.

Our approach draws on a simple but powerful idea that the best investors have understood for decades: buy excellent businesses at fair or discount prices, and let compounding do the work. Warren Buffett calls it finding "a wonderful company at a fair price." Joel Greenblatt built his Magic Formula around ranking stocks by quality and cheapness simultaneously. We've taken the same core insight and made it visual, systematic, and accessible.

Every stock in our universe is scored on two dimensions — quality (Y-axis) and valuation relative to our fair value estimate (X-axis) — and plotted on a scatter chart. The upper-left quadrant is where high-quality businesses trading below fair value cluster. That's where you want to fish.

Our Quality Score is a composite 0–100 rating built from seven weighted pillars. Each pillar captures a dimension of business excellence that academic research and decades of practitioner experience have linked to sustainable competitive advantage and long-term shareholder returns.

The pillars are weighted to emphasize the dimensions most closely associated with sustainable competitive advantage. A stock scoring above 70 is high quality by our framework. Above 85 is exceptional. Below 40 signals fundamental weakness in the underlying business.

Every stock in our universe receives a moat classification — Wide, Narrow, or None — generated by an analysis pipeline that evaluates five established sources of competitive advantage:

The pipeline draws on financial data from SEC EDGAR filings and company context to assess each moat source. It applies the same analytical framework to every stock in the universe — no coverage bias toward large-caps, no subjective favorites, no gaps.

We're transparent about the trade-off: an automated pipeline offers breadth and consistency that no human team can match at this scale, but it lacks the nuanced judgment a seasoned analyst brings to complex, ambiguous situations. We think the breadth is worth it for a screening tool — and we encourage investors to layer their own judgment on top of our ratings for any stock they're seriously considering.

Our fair value estimates use an owner-earnings approach — a framework popularized by Warren Buffett that focuses on the cash a business actually generates for its owners after maintaining its productive capacity.

We calculate three tiers — Conservative, Base, and Optimistic — giving you a range rather than a single point estimate. This helps you think probabilistically about intrinsic value and assess your margin of safety at a glance.

Any valuation model depends on assumptions, and ours is no exception. We use a standardized multiplier across all stocks rather than company-specific growth forecasts. This makes comparisons consistent but means the fair value works best as a relative compass across the universe — not as a precise target price for any individual stock.

Our financial data comes from SEC EDGAR filings — the same authoritative source that institutional investors and analysts rely on. We pull directly from 10-K and 10-Q filings to build our income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements.

Our coverage universe is approximately 2,600 investable US common stocks — companies with real operating businesses listed on the NYSE and Nasdaq. We deliberately exclude OTC stocks, ADRs, warrants, preferred shares, SPACs, and shell companies to keep the universe focused on businesses you'd actually want to own.

Price data is updated regularly during market hours. Quality scores, moat ratings, and fair value estimates are refreshed on a recurring pipeline schedule tied to the latest available SEC filings.

MoatScope's framework doesn't claim to be original. It synthesizes ideas from investors and researchers who've spent decades proving that quality and value work together:

Warren Buffett — the moat concept, owner earnings, the idea that a wonderful business at a fair price beats a fair business at a wonderful price.

Benjamin Graham — margin of safety, the discipline of buying below intrinsic value, systematic screening over gut instinct.

Joel Greenblatt — ranking stocks simultaneously on quality and cheapness, the Magic Formula's proof that combining both dimensions outperforms.

Pat Dorsey & Morningstar — formalizing moat analysis into a repeatable framework with specific competitive advantage sources.

We've taken these ideas and made them accessible in a visual, data-driven tool that any self-directed investor can use — not just those who can afford a $249/year research subscription or a $28,000/year Bloomberg terminal.

Questions, feedback, or partnership inquiries: admin@fourseaslabs.com