How to Use MoatScope
A complete guide to screening stocks through the lens of competitive advantage. Learn how to read the Quality × Valuation grid, understand moat ratings, and find high-quality businesses at reasonable prices.
🔭 What is MoatScope?
MoatScope is a stock research platform built around one core idea: the best investments combine high business quality with reasonable valuation. We map every stock on a Quality × Valuation grid so you can instantly spot great businesses that the market may be underpricing.
Unlike traditional stock screeners that flood you with raw data, MoatScope focuses on the interpretive layer — AI-powered moat analysis, a seven-pillar quality scoring system, and fair value estimates — to help you understand why a company is (or isn't) a high-quality business.
📊 The Quality × Valuation Scatter Plot
The scatter plot is the heart of MoatScope. Each dot represents a stock, positioned by two dimensions:
Y-axis — Quality Score (0–100): Higher means stronger fundamentals — better margins, higher returns on capital, more consistent cash generation, and a wider moat.
X-axis — Price / Fair Value (P/FV): Shows how the market price compares to MoatScope's fair value estimate. A P/FV of 1.0× means the stock trades at exactly fair value. Below 1.0× suggests undervaluation; above 1.0× suggests a premium.
Dots are color-coded by moat rating:
The vertical dashed line labeled FV marks the 1.0× fair value boundary. Stocks to the left of this line trade below their estimated fair value; stocks to the right trade at a premium.
Range sliders below the chart let you filter the visible range for both Quality Score and P/FV ratio. You can also adjust the X-axis maximum to zoom into stocks trading near fair value.
🏰 Moat Ratings
An economic moat is a durable competitive advantage that protects a company's profits from competitors — like a castle moat protects against invaders. MoatScope classifies every analyzed stock into one of three ratings:
The company has strong, durable competitive advantages that are likely to persist for 20+ years. Think Visa's payment network, Microsoft's enterprise ecosystem, or Apple's hardware-software lock-in.
The company has meaningful competitive advantages, but they're less durable or narrower in scope. Could persist 10–20 years. Examples include regional banks with strong deposit franchises or specialized manufacturers.
The company lacks a sustainable competitive advantage. Operates in a commoditized market, faces intense competition, or has no structural barriers protecting profitability.
Moat sources identify where the advantage comes from. MoatScope tracks five moat sources from the Morningstar framework:
Switching Costs — Customers face high costs (time, money, disruption) to switch away.
Network Effects — The product becomes more valuable as more people use it.
Intangible Assets — Brands, patents, licenses, or regulatory approvals that competitors can't easily replicate.
Cost Advantage — Structural ability to produce at lower cost than competitors.
Efficient Scale — Serves a market of limited size, discouraging new entrants.
⭐ Quality Score (0–100)
The Quality Score measures fundamental business quality on a scale from 0 to 100. It combines seven weighted pillars of financial analysis:
How to interpret the score:
💰 Fair Value Estimates
MoatScope calculates three fair value estimates for each stock, representing conservative, base, and optimistic scenarios:
The formula uses owner earnings (net income + depreciation & amortization − capital expenditures), adjusted for cash and debt on the balance sheet:
where Cash Flow = Net Income + D&A − CapEx
The P/FV ratio shown in the table and on the X-axis divides the current market price by the Base fair value estimate. A P/FV below 1.0× indicates the stock trades below estimated fair value; above 1.0× indicates a premium.
🔍 Stock Detail Panel
Click any stock in the table to open its detail panel on the right. The panel contains several sections:
Header: Ticker, company name, moat badge, sector, and market cap at a glance.
Price & Fair Value: Current price with daily change, plus the Base fair value and premium/discount percentage. Below it, you'll see the Conservative → Base → Optimistic range.
Quality Score: The composite score with a colored progress bar.
Moat Sources: Tags showing which competitive advantages the AI identified (e.g., Switching Costs, Intangible Assets).
AI Reasoning: A detailed, multi-paragraph analysis explaining the moat classification, financial evidence, risks, and quality assessment.
The panel also has tabs for deeper exploration:
Profile — Company info: sector, industry, country, IPO date, market cap.
Metrics — Breakdown of all seven quality pillars with individual scores plus key financial metrics (ROE, ROIC, etc.).
Chart — Price history chart.
Financials — Full income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, and key ratios.
Notes — Your personal notes on the stock.
🎛️ Filters & Screening
The left sidebar gives you powerful filtering to narrow down stocks:
Switch between "All Stocks" and your custom baskets (watchlists).
Filter by major index: DJIA (30 stocks), S&P 500, or NASDAQ 100. Counts show how many analyzed stocks are in each.
Toggle Wide, Narrow, and None to show only stocks with specific moat ratings. Great for focusing on wide-moat businesses.
Filter by competitive advantage type: Switching Costs, Network Effects, Intangible Assets, Cost Advantage, or Efficient Scale. Use "Any" to match stocks with at least one selected source, or "All" to require every selected source.
Filter by GICS sector: Technology, Health Care, Financials, Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, and more. Each shows a count of how many stocks in the current view belong to that sector.
📈 Financial Statements
The Financials tab in the stock detail panel shows complete financial statements sourced from SEC EDGAR filings:
Income Statement — Revenue, cost of revenue, gross profit, operating income, net income, EPS.
Balance Sheet — Assets, liabilities, equity, cash, debt levels.
Cash Flow — Operating cash flow, capital expenditures, free cash flow, dividends.
Ratios — Key financial ratios computed from the statements.
You can toggle the display between USD and other units, and choose between Billions or Millions. Data includes TTM (trailing twelve months) and multiple annual periods.
🧺 Baskets & Notes
Baskets are custom watchlists that let you organize stocks into groups. Click the "Baskets" button in the top navigation to create and manage baskets.
Create a basket: Click "Baskets" → "New Basket" and give it a name (e.g., "Tech Leaders", "Dividend Growers").
Add stocks: When viewing a stock's detail panel, add it to any of your baskets.
Filter by basket: Select a basket in the sidebar to view only those stocks on the scatter plot and table.
Notes let you attach personal research notes to any stock. Use the Notes tab in the detail panel to jot down your thesis, key observations, or reminders. Notes are private and saved to your account.
💎 Plans & Pricing
MoatScope offers three tiers designed to give you the right level of access:
Scatter plot & filters
Quality scores
AI moat analysis
Limited baskets & notes
Unlimited baskets & notes
Fair value estimates
All filters & screening
Priority support
Data downloads (CSV)
Deeper AI features
Early access to new tools
Priority support
Ready to find great businesses?
Start screening stocks through the lens of competitive advantage.
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