Compare moats

Semtech’s FY2026 10-K (fiscal year ended January 25, 2026) supports a narrow moat and no more. On the durable side, it owns the LoRa® radio franchise - “our LoRa® devices and wireless radio frequency technology” - which IoT Analytics’ LPWAN Market 2024 release (https://iot-analytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/INSIGHTS-RELEASE-LPWAN-Market-2024.pdf) ranks first outside China at 41% of LPWAN connections, and it argues that scarce analog talent “has historically made it more difficult for new suppliers in the analog market to quickly develop products and gain significant market share.” On the limiting side, the same filing says its patents do not “create definitive competitive barriers to entry”, that average selling prices “have historically decreased rapidly”, that some customers “can stop incorporating our products into their own products with limited notice to us and suffer little or no penalty”, and that customers in China (including Hong Kong) were 47% of fiscal 2026 net sales. The record is uneven: its income statement shows gross profit of $296,250 thousand on net sales of $868,758 thousand in fiscal 2024, $456,528 thousand on $909,287 thousand in fiscal 2025 and $542,144 thousand on $1,049,975 thousand in fiscal 2026, and the 10-K says difficulties “have adversely impacted” its ability to realise the benefits of the Sierra Wireless acquisition.

source: sec.gov

Jabil's FY2025 10-K (fiscal year ended August 31, 2025) says it plainly: "Our business is highly competitive, and our manufacturing processes are generally not subject to significant proprietary protection." It adds that "The significant purchasing power and market power of these competitors, many of which are large companies, has and could increase pricing and competitive pressures for us", that some "have substantially greater manufacturing, research and development (R&D) and marketing resources", and that customers "are continually evaluating the merits of manufacturing products internally against the advantages of outsourcing". Stored fundamentals from the 10-Ks show gross profit of $2,867 million on $34,702 million of revenue in fiscal 2023, $2,676 million on $28,883 million in fiscal 2024 and $2,646 million on $29,802 million in fiscal 2025. AI demand has since accelerated growth (fiscal 2026 net revenue of $36.0 billion, per the 2026-09-30 release), but growth is not protection, and the filing's own description is of an unprotected, competitive service. No moat is claimable.

source: sec.gov

nVent's FY2025 Form 10-K (filed 2026-02-17) supports a real but limited edge. On the advantage side it describes "premier, industry-leading brands, some of which have a history spanning over 100 years" (nVent CADDY, ERICO, HOFFMAN, ILSCO, SCHROFF and TRACHTE), says the company is "recognized globally for quality, reliability and innovation", and lists "technical expertise, reputation for quality and reliability, timeliness of delivery, new product innovation, previous installation history, contractual terms and price" as what success depends on. Stored fundamentals from the same 10-K show gross profit of $1,075.2 million on $2,668.9 million of revenue in 2023, $1,209.1 million on $3,006.1 million in 2024 and $1,469.1 million on $3,893.1 million in 2025. An independent tracker places nVent in liquid cooling but not first: Dell'Oro Group (2026-01-08) wrote of "Vertiv leading the liquid cooling market and established players such as CoolIT, nVent, and Boyd maintaining strong market share positions". The limits are in Item 1A: "We compete in attractive markets with a high level of competition, which may result in pressure on our profit margins and limit our ability to maintain or increase the market share of our products"; "We compete with thousands of smaller regional and local companies that may be positioned to offer products produced at lower cost than ours"; and its intellectual property "may not provide us a significant competitive advantage". Branded, specified products with steady margins, in markets the company itself calls highly competitive, make a narrow moat.

source: sec.gov

The defensible assets the 10-K describes are intellectual: the LoRa® radio technology, analog and mixed-signal design expertise - “The development of IP and the resulting proprietary products is a critical success factor for us” - and 303 U.S. and 541 foreign patents. The filing itself discounts the patent part (“we do not believe they create definitive competitive barriers to entry”), which leaves the moat in proprietary technology and scarce design know-how rather than in scale or lock-in: Semtech outsources most manufacturing, sold 74% of fiscal 2026 net sales through independent distributors, and its customer agreements “do not require them to purchase a minimum quantity of our products”.

source: sec.gov

The 10-K says "We currently have a relatively modest number of patents for various innovations" and that Jabil relies "largely upon a combination of intellectual property laws, non-disclosure agreements with our customers, employees, and suppliers and our internal security systems, policies, and procedures", with other proprietary-rights factors being "the knowledge and experience of our management and workforce". Its stated advantages are operating methods (customer-dedicated business units, "highly automated, continuous flow manufacturing", global production and centralized procurement), not lock-in: "In the past, some of our customers moved a portion of their manufacturing from us in order to more fully utilize their excess internal manufacturing capacity." On the Q4 FY2026 call (https://earningswhispers.com/transcript/JBL/Q42026) management described a build-to-customer-design model rather than proprietary platforms: "We help customers build the system they've designed with their silicon, their architecture, and whichever suppliers they choose."

source: sec.gov

The source the 10-K points to is reputation and brand rather than lock-in or scale. Its success factors are "technical expertise, reputation for quality and reliability, timeliness of delivery, new product innovation, previous installation history, contractual terms and price", and it presents a portfolio of "premier, industry-leading brands, some of which have a history spanning over 100 years". It says "Patents, non-compete agreements, proprietary technologies, customer relationships, trademarks, trade names and brand names are important to our business", but also that "we do not regard our business as being materially dependent upon any single patent, non-compete agreement, proprietary technology, customer relationship, trademark, trade name or brand name", and Item 1A warns that intellectual property protection "may not preclude competitors from developing products similar to ours". Switching costs are not described in the filing beyond "previous installation history", and scale is not claimed as an advantage; the intangible is real but diffuse, which is part of why the rating is narrow.

source: sec.gov

LoRa, the technology Semtech owns, leads outside China; elsewhere Semtech is contesting the front rank. IoT Analytics’ March 21, 2024 release states “When excluding all LPWAN data from China, LoRa has the leading share of global LPWAN connections at 41%—more than double NB-IoT’s share”, though “Globally, NB-IoT has the largest share of LPWAN connections at approximately 54%” and “LoRa’s share of LPWAN connections is decreasing”. In data-center optics, management said on the fiscal Q2 2027 call (TradingKey machine transcript, https://www.tradingkey.com/news/transcripts/262131465-tradingkey) that at “800 gig, we had the market share about 18%. So over the 2 years, we have grown the market share well over 50% for 800 gig”, a company figure; an independent September 2024 newsletter (Deep Fundamental) had instead named Marvell and MACOM “the dominant players” in drivers and TIAs and said Semtech “has struggled to keep pace since the transition to 200G”. A third-party lead measured at the technology level rather than as Semtech’s own share, a company-reported share that the only independent view contradicts, and no ranking for its other lines do not evidence co-leadership, so the band is fast follower.

source: sec.gov

The 10-K calls Jabil "one of the leading providers of engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain solutions" and claims no rank. Independently, EMSNOW/in4ma's "EMS&ODM Global 100" (2026-03-06, https://www.emsnow.com/?p=53535) groups Jabil with Flex, Celestica and Sanmina as the US "big four", "representing about 85% of the revenue base among ~20 US headquartered EMS/ODM", while Wistron, Quanta and Wiwynn "plus Foxconn together account for nearly 57% of global EMS/ODM production". The 10-K concedes some competitors have "substantially greater manufacturing, research and development (R&D) and marketing resources". Among the largest Western contract manufacturers but behind the Taiwanese leaders in scale: at parity, not a leader.

source: sec.gov

In liquid cooling the only independent ranking found puts another company first: Dell'Oro Group (2026-01-08, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/data-center-liquid-cooling-market-to-approach-7-billion-by-2029-as-ai-deployments-accelerate-according-to-delloro-group-302655848.html) wrote that "The competitive landscape is evolving rapidly, with Vertiv leading the liquid cooling market and established players such as CoolIT, nVent, and Boyd maintaining strong market share positions." In enclosures, the 10-K's statement that "We are an enclosures and liquid cooling leader in the U.S. and globally" is the company's own, and the same filing says "We compete against large and well-established national and global companies, as well as regional and local companies and lower-cost manufacturers." With Vertiv ahead in the one tracked category and no independent enclosure ranking, the band is fast follower rather than co-leader or leader.

source: sec.gov

The 10-K describes a market where prices fall: “In the past, we have reduced the average selling prices of our products in anticipation of future competitive pricing pressures”, and Semtech’s products “are typically differentiated in performance but are priced competitively”. Margins have nonetheless climbed with the data-center mix: the fiscal Q2 2027 release (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000088941/000008894126000028/smtc-07262026x8k991.htm) reports GAAP gross margin of 53.8% against 52.1% a year earlier and guides fiscal Q3 adjusted gross margin to 58.3% +/- 100 bps, or 63.9% excluding the business held for sale. The release does not separate price from mix.

source: sec.gov

Stored fundamentals show gross profit of $2,867 million on $34,702 million of revenue in fiscal 2023, $2,676 million on $28,883 million in fiscal 2024 and $2,646 million on $29,802 million in fiscal 2025. The 10-K says "Most of our significant long-term customer contracts permit quarterly or other periodic prospective adjustments to pricing based on decreases and increases in component prices and other factors", so component costs largely pass through, while competitors may "be better positioned to compete on price for their services". Management's fiscal 2027 outlook is a core operating margin (non-GAAP) of 6.1% (release, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/898293/000162828026063890/jbl-20260930ex991.htm).

source: sec.gov

nVent has offset inflation with price, but gross margin has narrowed. Item 1A says "We strive for productivity improvements and implement increases in selling prices to help mitigate cost increases in raw materials, freight, energy, wage and other costs", and on the Q2 2026 call (https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/08/04/nvent-electric-nvt-q2-2026-earnings-call-transcript/) the CFO said "Price plus productivity offset inflation of more than $50 million including more than $30 million in tariff impact" and "Pricing is expected to offset the impact of inflation, including tariffs." Stored fundamentals from the FY2025 10-K show gross profit of $1,075.2 million on $2,668.9 million (2023), $1,209.1 million on $3,006.1 million (2024) and $1,469.1 million on $3,893.1 million (2025); the Q2 2026 release (https://s22.q4cdn.com/268397047/files/content_files/Q2-2026-NVT-Press-Release.pdf) shows gross profit at 37.9% of net sales against 38.6% a year earlier. The 10-K also warns that "economic downturns could adversely affect pricing as market participants compete more aggressively on price" and that some competitors "attempt to compete based primarily on price, localized expertise and local relationships."

source: sec.gov

Semtech sells mostly through independent distributors (74% of fiscal 2026 net sales) to OEMs. In AI data centers its FiberEdge and CopperEdge parts go into the optical transceivers and active copper cables that module and cable makers build, and the 10-K says hyperscale cloud providers “are generally our indirect customers”. Two customers took 14% and 11% of fiscal 2026 net sales, and customers in China (including Hong Kong) 47%.

Contract manufacturer for cloud, networking, semiconductor-equipment, automotive, healthcare and consumer customers. On the Q4 FY2026 call management said "Others in the industry are building product companies around their own power and cooling platforms and asking customers to standardize on them. That's a legitimate model. Ours is different."

nVent supplies the electrical and thermal enclosure layer of AI data centres: the 10-K says its Systems Protection solutions protect mission-critical applications "including data centers" and are used by hyperscalers, and the Q2 2026 release says it "announced another manufacturing expansion for liquid cooling to meet continued data center demand."

• CopperEdge redrivers for active copper cables Unknown · Moderate source: tradingkey.com
• FiberEdge optical TIAs and drivers Top 3 · Moderate source: tradingkey.com
• IoT routers, gateways and connected services Unknown · Low source: sec.gov
• LoRa devices (LoRa Edge, LoRa Connect, LoRaPLUS) Unknown · Moderate source: iot-analytics.com

• Cloud and data center infrastructure Unknown · Low source: earningswhispers.com
• Connected Living and Digital Commerce Unknown · Low source: sec.gov
• Regulated Industries (automotive, healthcare and packaging, energy infrastructure) Unknown · Moderate source: sec.gov

• Control buildings, switchgear and power distribution (TRACHTE and Electrical Products Group) Unknown · Moderate source: sec.gov
• Electrical connections (nVent CADDY, ERICO and ILSCO) Unknown · Moderate source: sec.gov
• Enclosures (nVent HOFFMAN and SCHROFF) Unknown · Moderate source: sec.gov
• Liquid cooling for data centres Challenger · Moderate source: prnewswire.com

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