Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) Cut to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Friday.

Separately, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Morningstar from $387.00 to $370.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 3rd.

Morningstar Price Performance

MORN stock opened at $273.35 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $301.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $324.60. The stock has a market cap of $11.71 billion, a PE ratio of 36.11 and a beta of 1.16. Morningstar has a one year low of $250.34 and a one year high of $365.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.14.

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.99 by $0.15. Morningstar had a net margin of 14.69% and a return on equity of 23.28%. The company had revenue of $591.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $580.81 million.

Morningstar Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a $0.455 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This is an increase from Morningstar’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. This represents a $1.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. Morningstar’s payout ratio is currently 21.24%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 3,635 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.44, for a total transaction of $1,182,974.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 10,142,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,300,838,335.36. This represents a 0.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 59,544 shares of company stock valued at $18,770,097. 39.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MORN. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Morningstar by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 497,411 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $158,772,000 after acquiring an additional 10,437 shares during the last quarter. Smith Group Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morningstar during the fourth quarter worth about $468,000. Oak Thistle LLC grew its stake in shares of Morningstar by 194.9% in the fourth quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 4,276 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,440,000 after purchasing an additional 2,826 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. increased its holdings in Morningstar by 29.4% during the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 1,073 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $361,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its position in Morningstar by 19.9% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 16,563 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,286,000 after purchasing an additional 2,751 shares during the last quarter. 57.02% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Morningstar

Morningstar, Inc provides independent investment insights in the United States, Asia. Australia, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company operates in five segments: Morningstar Data and Analytics; PitchBook; Morningstar Wealth; Morningstar Credit; and Morningstar Retirement.