William Lyons Sells 700 Shares of Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) Stock

Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) Director William Lyons sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.00, for a total transaction of $125,300.00. Following the sale, the director owned 13,904 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,488,816. The trade was a 4.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Morningstar Trading Up 1.9%

Shares of MORN opened at $180.11 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. Morningstar, Inc. has a 1 year low of $149.08 and a 1 year high of $316.71. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $174.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $190.94. The firm has a market cap of $6.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.34 and a beta of 0.99.

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

Key Stories Impacting Morningstar

Here are the key news stories impacting Morningstar this week:

• Negative Sentiment: Director William M. Lyons sold 700 shares at $179, a transaction that may weigh on investor confidence because insider selling is often viewed as a cautious signal. Article title
• Negative Sentiment: A recent bearish Seeking Alpha article argued that Morningstar’s “data moat” may be shrinking, which could raise concerns about long-term competitive pressure in its core data and analytics businesses. Article title
• Neutral Sentiment: Morningstar continued to get media exposure through commentary on AI spending cycles, retirement spending, and market trends, which supports brand visibility but does not directly change near-term fundamentals. Article title
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage of Morningstar perspectives on global asset owners and India fund flows highlights the company’s influence in investment research, but these stories are not immediate stock catalysts. Article title

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Institutional Trading of Morningstar

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Morningstar by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,006,325 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $435,995,000 after purchasing an additional 47,360 shares during the period. Bamco Inc. NY raised its holdings in shares of Morningstar by 9.2% in the third quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 1,414,305 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $328,133,000 after acquiring an additional 118,979 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Morningstar by 85.4% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,136,213 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $246,910,000 after acquiring an additional 523,387 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Morningstar by 48.0% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 900,297 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $195,644,000 after acquiring an additional 292,053 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Morningstar by 9.7% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 517,769 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $87,514,000 after acquiring an additional 45,798 shares in the last quarter. 57.02% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.