Corton Capital Inc. Purchases Shares of 612 Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN)

Corton Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 612 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Morningstar by 19.9% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 16,563 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,286,000 after buying an additional 2,751 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Morningstar by 8.1% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 1,208 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $385,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Morningstar by 49.2% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 467 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $157,000 after acquiring an additional 154 shares during the period. Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Morningstar during the 4th quarter valued at $236,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in Morningstar by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 57,505 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $19,506,000 after purchasing an additional 1,963 shares during the period. 57.02% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on MORN. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Morningstar from $387.00 to $370.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. StockNews.com raised Morningstar from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd.

Morningstar Stock Performance

Morningstar stock opened at $297.93 on Thursday. Morningstar, Inc. has a 12-month low of $250.34 and a 12-month 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. The company has a market capitalization of $12.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.36 and a beta of 0.99. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $286.24 and its 200 day moving average price is $318.70.

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The business services provider reported $2.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.10 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $581.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $589.07 million. Morningstar had a return on equity of 23.28% and a net margin of 14.69%.

Morningstar Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th were paid a dividend of $0.455 per share. This is a boost from Morningstar’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. This represents a $1.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 4th. Morningstar’s dividend payout ratio is 20.45%.

Insider Transactions at Morningstar

In other Morningstar news, Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 1,695 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.53, for a total transaction of $551,773.35. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 10,131,658 shares in the company, valued at $3,298,158,628.74. This represents a 0.02 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 61,443 shares of company stock valued at $19,164,301. 36.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.