What To Look For In An Economic Moat

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Moat investing was made famous by Warren Buffett and over the past few decades, economic moat analysis has become an increasingly important area of analysis for investors. Finding companies that can continue to grow and maintain high returns on capital in the face of sustained competitive pressures is an art, but what makes an economic moat?

Economic moat framework

Investment research company Morningstar has taken the economic moat concept and built an analytic framework that can be applied consistently across a broad, global list of businesses.

Jeremy Grantham, founder of  GMO LLC, which today manages $117 billion, was one of the first fund managers to incorporate economic moat investing (or lack of a moat) into his investment strategy.

[drizzle]

During December 1978, a year...