Wide Moat Stock Screener Excel: Economic Moat Dashboard for May 2026 Quality Investing

A wide moat stock is a company with a durable competitive advantage, such as network effects, switching costs, cost advantages or strong brands, that lets it earn high returns on capital for many years. This free Excel screener scores 27 large-cap US stocks on a composite moat score built from return on invested capital, gross margin, operating margin and revenue growth, all pulled with MarketXLS formulas such as =GrossMargin("AAPL"), and compares wide-moat and narrow-moat baskets with heatmaps and scenario analysis. It was published in May 2026 and is educational, not investment advice.

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IntroductionHistorical DataOptions DataUse-cases

Before we dig in, here is the headline comparison built directly into the dashboard.

Wide moat versus narrow moat: the May 2026 snapshot

That single block of numbers is the central insight: the wide-moat basket trades at roughly a 70% P/E premium to the narrow-moat group, and earns more than double the ROIC. Most other "quality vs everything else" data tables hide one of those two columns. The point of this template is to show them next to each other, refresh them on every Excel recalc, and let you stress-test the spread against five different macro scenarios.

What the wide moat stock screener Excel template includes

The download is two files - a static sample with values captured on May 22, 2026, and a live template wired to MarketXLS formulas. Both contain eleven worksheets:

• Cover - branded title page with table of contents and version stamp
• How To Use - eight-step tutorial that walks every input and every formula
• Dashboard - seven KPI tiles across the top, two embedded charts, and a 27-row moat screener with conditional formatting
• Inputs - yellow-highlighted input cells, three dropdowns (risk tier, scenario, custom tickers), and ten parameters that drive every other sheet
• Scenario Analysis - five-by-five matrix that ranks each moat archetype across base case, soft landing, sticky inflation, mild recession, and AI capex boom regimes
• Strategy - top ten wide-moat positions with illustrative entry zones, twelve-month targets, stop levels, upside, downside, and risk/reward
• Portfolio - capital allocation by name and sector for the chosen risk tier, plus a donut chart of holdings
• Comparison - eight-row, side-by-side wide vs narrow moat metric table with a red-amber-green heatmap on the spread column
• Historical Performance - five-year indexed performance of the wide and narrow moat baskets with a line chart
• Methodology - one-page explainer of the composite moat score and its limitations
• Glossary & Disclaimer - fourteen-term glossary and the educational-only disclaimer

Below are the download links. The static sample workbook is free to download. Refreshing MarketXLS formulas in the live workbook requires a paid MarketXLS subscription.

Download the templates:

• - Pre-filled values captured on May 22, 2026 with formula comments on every data cell
• - Live MarketXLS formulas, zero static data

The rest of this guide explains why wide moat investing still matters in May 2026, how the template builds its composite moat score, how to interpret each tab, and what the historical evidence says about the wide-versus-narrow spread.

What is an economic moat, and why it still matters in 2026

The phrase "economic moat" entered the investing vocabulary through Warren Buffett's 1995 Berkshire Hathaway annual letter. He framed business quality around a simple question: how wide is the protective barrier around the cash flows? A castle that earns 25% on invested capital but has no moat will be stormed by competitors within a few years. A castle with the same returns and a 20-mile moat compounds for decades.

Morningstar made the concept analytic in 2002 when it formalised five primary sources of moat:

1. Intangible assets - patents, brands, regulatory approvals, FDA-approved drug pipelines.
2. Switching costs - the friction a customer faces when leaving. Think enterprise software, accounting platforms, payroll systems.
3. Network effects - each new user makes the product more valuable to every existing user.
4. Cost advantage - structural ability to produce at lower unit cost than competitors.
5. Efficient scale - the market is just big enough for one or two players to earn good returns.

In May 2026 the conversation around moats has shifted in a specific way. The post-pandemic capex super-cycle is concentrated in companies that already had wide moats - hyperscalers, semiconductor leaders, payments rails, and large-cap software. Their reinvestment rate is higher, their incremental ROIC is in many cases higher than their base ROIC, and the AI build-out has lengthened (not shortened) their moat duration. At the same time, narrow-moat names in cyclical industries are facing margin pressure from sticky service-sector inflation, tighter regulatory scrutiny, and the back end of a sector rotation that punished defensive yield.

That setup is why a screener built around durability, pricing power, and capital efficiency is timely right now, not just timeless. The wide moat stock screener Excel template was designed for advisors and self-directed investors who want a defensible quality sleeve they can refresh every quarter without rebuilding it from scratch.

How the composite moat score is built

The Methodology tab walks the math in detail. The short version is that each name receives a 0 to 100 score made of four weighted components:

Names scoring 70+ qualify as wide moat, 50 to 70 as narrow moat, and below 50 as no moat. The threshold is configurable from the Inputs tab so you can tighten or loosen the screen for your own use case.

The dashboard does not invent any of those numbers. Every cell in the live template is a MarketXLS function. When you open the workbook in Excel with the MarketXLS add-in installed, each row recalculates with the latest available data. That matters because moat scoring is not a one-and-done exercise - margins move, ROIC erodes, and the screen needs to keep up.

Reading the dashboard sheet

The Dashboard tab is intentionally the first thing you see after the cover. Seven KPI tiles sit across the top:

1. Wide Moat Avg ROIC - the headline capital-efficiency number for the basket
2. Narrow Moat Avg ROIC - the control group, sized to make the spread obvious
3. Wide Moat Gross Margin - pricing power proxy
4. Wide Moat Op Margin - operating leverage check
5. Wide Moat Rev Growth - top-line compounding
6. Wide Moat Avg P/E - what the market is paying for the basket
7. Moat P/E Spread (W minus N) - the quality premium in multiple points

Below the tiles, two embedded charts visualise the five-year indexed performance of each basket and the sector mix of the 27-stock coverage universe. Underneath that, the 27-row screener ranks every name on the core metrics with a color scale heatmap (red is worst, green is best for each column) and a data bar for revenue growth.

Gridlines are hidden on the dashboard so the layout reads more like a designed report than a spreadsheet. Frozen panes lock the screener's first three columns so the ticker and moat source stay visible when you scroll. The print area is set so the dashboard prints cleanly on one landscape page if you ever need to hand it to a client.

The 27-stock coverage universe

The universe was chosen to span all five moat archetypes and to include enough names per archetype to make the averages meaningful. Twenty wide moat candidates anchor the screen and seven narrow moat names sit alongside as a control group.

Wide moat sleeve (20 names)

Narrow moat sleeve (7 names)

The names were picked for breadth of moat archetype, not as recommendations. Add your own conviction tickers in the Inputs tab using the two Custom Ticker dropdowns; the screener picks them up automatically.

The Inputs tab - making the workbook your own

Every premium template lives or dies on whether the user can actually drive it. The Inputs tab is the steering wheel. Yellow cells are user-editable and every downstream sheet references them.

There are three data-validation dropdowns to keep entries clean:

• A Conservative / Base / Aggressive dropdown on the Risk Tier
• A 27-ticker dropdown on the Custom Ticker slots
• A Base Case 2026 / Soft Landing / Sticky Inflation / Mild Recession / AI Capex Boom dropdown on the Scenario toggle

Set the dropdown once and the Scenario Analysis tab, Portfolio tab, and Strategy tab all recompute against your selection.

The Scenario Analysis tab - which moat wins in each regime

Moat investing is sometimes pitched as "buy quality, hold forever, ignore the macro." That advice has merit, but in practice different moat archetypes lead in different macro setups. The Scenario Analysis tab is the regime checklist. It ranks each archetype on a one-to-ten scale across five scenarios with a three-color icon set, so you can spot at a glance which families of names should outperform.

The pattern jumps out: network effects and switching-cost software lead in the two growth scenarios (base case and AI capex boom). Cost-advantage names lead in sticky inflation because they have real assets and pricing power baked in. Brand and IP take over in mild recession because earnings revisions in those buckets are the most stable. The Scenario tab is meant as a regime checklist, not a forecast.

The Strategy tab - top 10 wide-moat positions

The Strategy tab takes the top 10 wide-moat names from the dashboard and builds an illustrative entry zone, twelve-month target, and stop level for each. Risk/reward is calculated as (target minus last) divided by (last minus stop). A value above 2.0 is generally considered favorable.

The entry/target/stop math is placeholder logic - 92 to 97% of last price for entry, plus 18% for target, minus 15% for stop. Calibrate these to your own technical levels and price thesis before acting on them. This tab is intentionally simple so you can replace the entry/target/stop math with your own without breaking the rest of the workbook.

The Portfolio tab - capital allocation

This is where the Portfolio Size input from the Inputs tab does its work. The Portfolio tab takes the top ten wide-moat names, applies a weight per position based on the risk tier, and outputs the dollar allocation per name. A donut chart visualises the mix. Conservative tilts weight toward defensive moats (UNH, LLY, KO, PEP, COST, WMT). Aggressive tilts weight toward network-effect and switching-cost tech (MSFT, GOOGL, META, V, MA). Base sits in the middle.

The cell =Inputs!B5 pulls the portfolio size and the =B$4*D{row} formula computes each allocation. If you want to change the universe to twenty names instead of ten, copy the row formulas down and update the weights to sum to 100%.

The Comparison tab - the heatmap that says it all

The Comparison tab is one screen and eight rows. For each of eight metrics, the wide-moat basket and the narrow-moat basket are averaged side by side, and the spread is color-coded red-amber-green. It is the single tab you should print and put in front of a skeptical client.

*ROE is distorted by buyback-heavy names like AAPL, HD, and MCD that have run share counts down hard enough to take book value negative. ROIC is the cleaner moat metric and is the one weighted highest in the composite score.

The story the heatmap tells is simple. Wide moat names earn more, grow faster, and have wider margins. They also cost more on every multiple. They are not less volatile. The premium is real and explainable, and so is the case for owning the basket through a full cycle.

The Historical Performance tab - five years of evidence

The Historical Performance tab shows an indexed comparison of the two baskets going back to 2021. The wide-moat index has compounded from 100 to roughly 129 over five years; the narrow-moat index sits closer to 118. That is a 9 to 10 percentage point cumulative spread, with most of it earned in 2023 and 2024 when the AI capex cycle re-priced the wide-moat tech names higher.

The chart also makes a fair point honestly: in 2022 (the rate-shock year) the wide-moat basket lagged because long-duration tech and consumer staples both sold off. Moat is durability, not invulnerability.

The Methodology and Glossary tabs - what makes this template defensible

The Methodology tab is one page and seven sections: why wide moat investing exists, how the composite score is built, the data sources, the universe construction, the scenario tilts, limitations, and an educational-use disclaimer. The Glossary defines fourteen terms used throughout the workbook, from "economic moat" through "efficient scale" and "switching costs" to ROIC, EV/EBITDA, and Beta.

Treat the Methodology tab as a one-page memo you can share with stakeholders. It is written specifically so that a reader who has never seen the workbook before can understand exactly what assumptions are baked in and where the model can break down. Honest caveats included.

Wide moat investing in May 2026: the macro context

Three forces are shaping the wide-moat opportunity set right now.

The AI capex super-cycle is concentrating returns. Hyperscalers, fabless chip designers, equipment suppliers, and large-cap software are doing the bulk of the incremental capital spending in the U.S. economy. That spending is being deployed inside companies that already have wide moats. Capital is compounding inside the franchise, not leaking to new entrants.

The narrow-moat group is structurally less interesting. Banks, telecoms, and consumer cyclicals have higher beta, narrower margins, and a thinner revenue-growth tailwind than they did a decade ago. The wide-versus-narrow spread on ROIC has widened, not narrowed, since 2019.

Valuation is not a free lunch. The wide-moat basket trades at a 70% premium to the narrow basket on trailing P/E. That premium can compress in a sharp drawdown. Owning quality at a price still matters. The Inputs tab includes a Max P/E parameter precisely so you can tighten the screen when the multiple looks stretched.

The wide moat stock screener Excel template is built to operate inside that environment - not to predict it.

How to extend the template

A few suggestions for power users:

• Replace the top 10 wide-moat names with a custom list pulled from a Morningstar export. Drop the tickers in the Inputs custom slots and let the dashboard recompute.
• Wire a forward earnings yield column (=1/ForwardPE("AAPL")) into the screener to add a valuation overlay.
• Add a dividend safety overlay using =DividendPayoutRatio("AAPL") and =InterestCoverage("AAPL") to filter for sustainable cash returns.
• Pull =QuarterlyEarningsGrowthYOY("AAPL") into the screener to add earnings revision momentum.
• For options-aware users, layer =QM_GetOptionChainActive("AAPL") into a covered-call screen on the same universe.

The workbook is intentionally self-contained, so adding a new column does not break any of the conditional formatting or the chart series ranges.

Wide moat stock screener Excel - FAQ

What is a wide moat stock?

A wide moat stock is a company with a structural competitive advantage that is expected to keep returns on invested capital above the cost of capital for twenty years or more. Morningstar formalised the term, but it traces back to Warren Buffett's 1995 Berkshire annual letter. The five most common moat sources are intangible assets (patents, brands, regulatory licences), switching costs, network effects, cost advantage, and efficient scale. A wide moat stock screener Excel template like this one ranks candidates by ROIC, margins, growth, and durability so you can pick the names that fit the moat definition you care about most.

How do I screen for wide moat stocks in Excel?

Use a composite score that weighs ROIC, gross margin, operating margin, and revenue growth. In the live MarketXLS template, those four metrics are pulled with =ReturnOnInvestedCapitalOneYear("AAPL"), =GrossMargin("AAPL"), =OperatingMargin("AAPL"), and =RevenueGrowth("AAPL"). Apply minimum thresholds (the template defaults to 15% ROIC and 35% gross margin) and any name that clears all four passes the screen. The conditional formatting heatmap on the dashboard makes the strong and weak names jump out visually before you read a single number.

Is wide moat investing the same as value investing?

No. Value investing focuses on buying a business below its intrinsic value. Wide moat investing focuses on the durability of the business itself. The two overlap when a wide-moat business trades at a reasonable multiple, which is the situation Buffett looks for. They diverge when a wide-moat name is expensive on traditional metrics but expected to compound earnings fast enough to justify the price. The template includes a Max P/E parameter so you can tilt the screen toward value-priced moats when valuations are stretched.

Why is gross margin a moat indicator?

Gross margin is the cleanest signal of pricing power. A business that can charge a premium for its product without losing volume keeps its gross margin sticky through cycles. Visa, Mastercard, Microsoft, Adobe, and Lockheed Martin all carry gross margins above 60% and have for a decade. Commodity businesses by contrast see gross margin compress whenever input costs rise faster than they can pass them through. Pairing gross margin with ROIC catches both the pricing-power dimension and the capital-efficiency dimension of a moat.

Does the template require the MarketXLS add-in to work?

The sample workbook does not - it has static values and works in any version of Excel. The premium MarketXLS formula version does require the MarketXLS add-in installed in Excel because it uses functions like =QM_Last, =ReturnOnInvestedCapitalOneYear, =GrossMargin, and =Sector. Without the add-in those cells will show #NAME?. With it, every cell refreshes live. Visit marketxls.com for the add-in and marketxls.com/book-demo to see it walked end-to-end.

How often should the wide moat screen be refreshed?

ROIC, margins, and revenue growth are TTM and quarterly metrics, so refreshing once a quarter (or after a meaningful earnings report on a held name) is enough. The live template auto-refreshes on every Excel recalc, so the headache of manually updating numbers goes away. The Historical Performance tab is the one you would want to update annually with a re-indexed back-test.

What is the difference between a wide moat screener and a quality screener?

A quality screener typically filters for high ROE, low leverage, and stable earnings. A wide moat screener adds the structural question: why are those returns durable? Two companies can have the same 25% ROE - one because of a network effect, the other because of a temporary product cycle. The first is wide moat; the second is not. This template includes a "Moat Source" column on the screener tab so you can see at a glance which competitive advantage is doing the work.

The bottom line

A wide moat stock screener in Excel is most useful when it ranks names on transparent rules, refreshes with current data, and shows the wide-versus-narrow spread at a glance. The 27-stock universe was chosen to span every Morningstar moat archetype. The composite score was built on the four MarketXLS formulas that map most directly to durable competitive advantage - ROIC, gross margin, operating margin, and revenue growth. The conditional formatting was tuned to make the strong names jump out without you reading every cell.

Use the sample version to read the structure and decide if the framework fits how you think. Use the live version with the MarketXLS add-in to plug into a daily, weekly, or quarterly refresh. The static sample workbook is free to download. Refreshing MarketXLS formulas in the live workbook requires a paid MarketXLS subscription.

Want to see MarketXLS power the rest of your quality sleeve? Visit marketxls.com for the full function library, and book a walkthrough at marketxls.com/book-demo.

Related templates worth pairing with this one:

• Capital allocation scorecard
• Quality compounders screener
• Owner earnings calculator
• Magnificent 7 earnings dashboard
• Multi-factor stock screener