Dearborn Partners LLC Acquires Shares of 8,680 Morningstar, Inc. $MORN

Dearborn Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 8,680 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,467,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MORN. Grove Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in Morningstar during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Morningstar during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Morningstar during the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Morningstar during the second quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Quarry LP increased its stake in shares of Morningstar by 51.2% in the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 189 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.02% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Morningstar

In other Morningstar news, Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 7,906 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chairman owned 7,960,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,673,789,448.20. This represents a 0.10% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 87,200 shares of company stock worth $17,949,751. Insiders own 38.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $210.00 price target on shares of Morningstar in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Morningstar from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, June 21st. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Morningstar from $280.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Morningstar from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Friday, August 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $212.00 price target on shares of Morningstar in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $227.33.

Morningstar Stock Performance

MORN stock opened at $217.50 on Tuesday. Morningstar, Inc. has a 1 year low of $141.49 and a 1 year high of $265.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.60 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.06. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $179.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.78.

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

Morningstar Company 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.