"Wide moat" is one of Buffett's most-quoted phrases and one of the most-misused in investing media. A moat isn't just "high ROIC right now" - it's structural protection from competition that the business should sustain for a decade or more.
When you apply the moat-pillar tests across our 7-framework consensus screen, you get a meaningful filter. Most "wide moat" lists are just sorted by current ROIC; ours requires that at least 5 of the 7 frameworks independently agree the moat is structural, sustained, and present in the current numbers.
Twelve stocks currently pass that strict filter as of May 2026. They span payment networks, credit-rating duopolies, regulated utilities, software franchises, and a small number of consumer-brand and industrial-process monopolies.
The 12 wide-moat names
For each: ticker, sector, the type of moat, and the framework consensus.
Payment networks (3 names)
- Visa (V) - 7-of-7 consensus. Network-effect moat: every additional merchant + consumer makes the network more valuable. Switching costs for issuers and acquirers are immense. Live: /buffett/v/.
- Mastercard (MA) - 7-of-7. Same thesis. Slightly different mix on cross-border.
- American Express (AXP) - 7-of-7. Closed-loop network (Amex handles both card-issuing AND merchant-acquiring). Different moat than V/MA - premium customer franchise + closed-loop economics.
Credit-rating duopolies (2 names)
- Moody's (MCO) - 7-of-7. Regulatory + reputational moat. Bond issuers need credit ratings; only two firms (Moody's, S&P Global) are accepted as primary. New entrants face decades of credibility-building. Live: /buffett/mco/.
- S&P Global (SPGI) - 6-of-7. Same duopoly position. Fails Graham on P/E, passes everything else.
Software franchises (3 names)
- Microsoft (MSFT) - 7-of-7. Switching-cost moat (Office, Active Directory, SQL Server, Azure ecosystem) + scale moat (AI compute infrastructure). The most quality-passing tech name.
- Adobe (ADBE) - 7-of-7. Creative Cloud is the workflow standard for design professionals. Switching cost = the user's entire career muscle memory. The Document Cloud moat is similar.
- Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) - 7-of-7. Medical-device monopoly on robotic surgery. Switching cost = 5-7 years of surgeon training per hospital. Once the da Vinci is installed, consumables sell forever. Live: /buffett/isrg/.
Industrial process oligopolies (2 names)
- Linde (LIN) - 6-of-7. Industrial gas duopoly (Linde + Air Liquide) with 30+ year customer contracts and capex-intensive entry barriers. Sells the air to factories that can't substitute. Live: /buffett/lin/.
- ASML (ASML) - 6-of-7. Extreme ultraviolet lithography monopoly. The only company on earth that makes the machines that make the most advanced chips. Geopolitically sensitive but structurally unrivalled.
Specialty industrial (1 name)
- Sherwin-Williams (SHW) - 5-of-7. Paint-distribution moat through 4,800 company-operated stores. Contractors buy from SHW because the supply chain is reliable. Switching costs measured in trust and inventory familiarity.
Membership franchises (1 name)
- Costco (COST) - 5-of-7. Membership economics (member renewal rate 92%+) plus scale economics (Kirkland Signature) create a defensive moat. Slow growth keeps Lynch/Greenblatt out of the strong-fit zone, but Buffett, Munger, Smith, Fisher all pass.
What "wide moat" actually requires
The framework moat-pillar tests are not just "high ROIC". They're specifically:
- Sustained ROIC over 10 years. Anything cyclical fails this.
- Pricing power: gross margin stability through inflation. Anything commodity fails this.
- Low capital reinvestment requirement: maintenance capex < 50% of operating cash flow. Anything capital-intensive AND cyclical fails this.
- Industry structure: oligopoly or monopoly position. Anything fragmented competitive market fails this.
To pass 5+ of the 7 frameworks on the moat pillar, a business needs to satisfy all four implicitly. The 12 names above all do, in different ways.
Why this list looks different from most
Most "wide moat" lists you'll see in 2026 include:
- NVIDIA (allegedly a "moat" but actually a cyclical at peak margin compression risk)
- Tesla (moat narrative; framework consensus rejects on cyclicality)
- Berkshire Hathaway (a holding company, not a single-moat business; passes some but trips Smith's no-banks rule)
- Apple (passes 6-of-7 but the moat-pillar score has been compressing as services growth slows)
- Various semiconductor companies (TSM, AMD, AMAT - all flag on cyclicality)
Our filter rejects most of these because moat ≠ current ROIC; moat is the structural reason the ROIC sustains.
Verification
Every stock in this list has a live page on invest-like where the moat pillar score (and the underlying metrics: sustained ROIC, gross margin stability, debt-to-equity, customer concentration) are visible. Open:
Wide moat ≠ buy at any price
Critical caveat. Several of these stocks pass the moat test but fail the valuation test today. The Buffett framework specifically rejects "wonderful business at any price." Wide moat + reasonable price = real value investment. Wide moat + extreme price = wait.
For a deeper read on combining quality with price, see our 5-pillars post - the moat is pillar 1 of 5; the valuation is pillar 4.
Disclosure
Educational tool. The 12 names are mechanical outputs of the 7-framework consensus moat-pillar test applied to current fundamentals data. They are not investment recommendations. Past moat sustainability does not guarantee future moat sustainability. Industries change, businesses get disrupted, even wide moats erode.
Author: Zaid Ghazal, founder of invest-like, indie SaaS, Kiel, Germany.