Insider Selling: Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) Chairman Sells $1,275,710.00 in Stock

Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) Chairman Joseph Mansueto sold 7,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total transaction of $1,275,710.00. Following the transaction, the chairman directly owned 8,095,990 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,424,570,400.40. The trade was a 0.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Morningstar Trading Down 0.1%

NASDAQ:MORN opened at $166.05 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $176.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $193.61. The stock has a market cap of $6.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.91 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. Morningstar, Inc. has a 12 month low of $149.08 and a 12 month high of $316.71.

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $3.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.41 by $0.77. The firm had revenue of $644.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $626.91 million. Morningstar had a net margin of 16.06% and a return on equity of 33.14%.

Institutional Trading of Morningstar

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Morningstar by 32.0% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 91,155 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $21,149,000 after purchasing an additional 22,109 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. grew its position in Morningstar by 12.7% during the 4th quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 74,541 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $16,199,000 after purchasing an additional 8,424 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Morningstar during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,713,000. Confluence Investment Management LLC grew its position in Morningstar by 17.9% during the 4th quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 71,033 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $15,436,000 after purchasing an additional 10,794 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in Morningstar by 46.4% during the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 88,108 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $20,392,000 after purchasing an additional 27,927 shares during the last quarter. 57.02% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MORN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Morningstar from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Morningstar from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Morningstar from $257.00 to $193.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, UBS Group set a $280.00 target price on shares of Morningstar in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Morningstar currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $236.50.

About Morningstar

Morningstar, Inc is a leading provider of independent investment research, data, and analytics, serving both individual investors and financial professionals. The company offers comprehensive coverage of financial products, including mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), stocks, bonds and market indexes. Morningstar’s proprietary rating systems and research methodologies help clients assess the risk and return profiles of investment opportunities and make informed decisions.

Its core products include Morningstar Direct, an institutional investment analysis platform; Morningstar Office Cloud, a portfolio management solution for advisors; and Morningstar Data, which delivers extensive datasets through APIs and data feeds.