Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) Price Target Raised to $237.00

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) had its price target lifted by BMO Capital Markets from $230.00 to $237.00 in a report published on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. BMO Capital Markets currently has an outperform rating on the business services provider’s stock.

MORN has been the subject of several other research reports. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $210.00 price target on Morningstar in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Morningstar from $280.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Wall Street Zen raised Morningstar from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Morningstar from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Friday, October 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Morningstar presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.67.

Morningstar Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MORN opened at $209.24 on Tuesday. Morningstar has a twelve month low of $141.49 and a twelve month high of $223.79. The firm has a market cap of $7.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.81 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a 50 day moving average of $203.36 and a 200 day moving average of $184.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The business services provider reported $3.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.83 by $0.27. The business had revenue of $663.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $649.72 million. Morningstar had a return on equity of 38.57% and a net margin of 16.43%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Chairman Joseph Mansueto sold 7,906 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.26, for a total value of $1,662,315.56. Following the sale, the chairman owned 7,960,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,673,789,448.20. This trade represents a 0.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 86,500 shares of company stock worth $17,824,451 in the last 90 days. 38.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Morningstar

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Callan Family Office LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morningstar in the second quarter worth $846,000. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in Morningstar by 11.7% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 183,575 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $31,033,000 after acquiring an additional 19,264 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in Morningstar in the second quarter valued at about $903,000. Fluent Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Morningstar by 150.0% in the second quarter. Fluent Financial LLC now owns 14,362 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,241,000 after acquiring an additional 8,618 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Morningstar in the second quarter valued at about $4,278,000. 57.02% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Morningstar

Morningstar, Inc is a global provider of independent investment research, data, and analytical services. The company serves individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, institutions, and retirement plan providers through information and tools designed to support investment research, portfolio construction, wealth management, and financial planning.

Its offerings include ratings and research on mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, stocks, bonds, and other investments; portfolio management and investment research platforms such as Morningstar Direct and Morningstar Advisor Workstation; and data, analytics, and software for asset managers and financial institutions.