Morningstar, Inc. $MORN Shares Purchased by Royce & Associates LP

Royce & Associates LP increased its stake in shares of Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) by 2.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 143,011 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,635 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP owned 0.35% of Morningstar worth $31,078,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MORN. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in Morningstar by 23.6% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 178 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth grew its stake in Morningstar by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 3,838 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,151,000 after purchasing an additional 126 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Morningstar by 278.2% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 208 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $62,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Morningstar by 2,450.0% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 561 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $176,000 after purchasing an additional 539 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd grew its stake in Morningstar by 58.8% during the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 138,932 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $43,615,000 after purchasing an additional 51,449 shares in the last quarter. 57.02% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 7,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.84, for a total transaction of $1,274,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman directly owned 8,066,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,418,499,521.60. This represents a 0.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 74,392 shares of company stock worth $12,903,874. Corporate insiders own 38.80% of the company’s stock.

Morningstar Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MORN opened at $179.64 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $174.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $191.68. The stock has a market cap of $6.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.29 and a beta of 0.99. Morningstar, Inc. has a 1 year low of $149.08 and a 1 year high of $316.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03.

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $3.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.41 by $0.77. The business had revenue of $644.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $626.91 million. Morningstar had a return on equity of 33.14% and a net margin of 16.06%.

Morningstar Profile

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.