Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.44 EPS

Key Points

• Morningstar beat quarterly expectations: The company reported earnings of $3.48 per share, $0.44 above consensus, while revenue reached $672.10 million versus estimates of $664.75 million.
• Analyst sentiment remains positive: Morningstar has a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $235.67, despite UBS lowering its target to $260 and BMO raising its target to $237.
• Shares and insider activity: Shares traded at $214.86, near their 52-week high of $226.29. Chairman Joseph Mansueto sold 5,659 shares under a pre-arranged trading plan, and insiders have sold $17.8 million in stock over the past three months.

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN - Get Free Report) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The business services provider reported $3.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.04 by $0.44, FiscalAI reports. Morningstar had a return on equity of 38.57% and a net margin of 16.43%. The business had revenue of $672.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $664.75 million.

Morningstar Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MORN traded down $0.92 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $214.86. The company had a trading volume of 235,357 shares, compared to its average volume of 457,656. The company has a market cap of $8.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.35 and a beta of 1.02. Morningstar has a 52 week low of $141.49 and a 52 week high of $226.29. The business's 50-day moving average is $205.42 and its 200 day moving average is $186.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.06.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MORN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their target price on Morningstar from $280.00 to $260.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Morningstar from $230.00 to $237.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 13th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Morningstar from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research report on Friday, October 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Morningstar from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, September 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $235.67.

Insider Activity at Morningstar

In other news, Chairman Joseph Mansueto sold 5,659 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.84, for a total transaction of $1,238,415.56. Following the sale, the chairman directly owned 7,938,192 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,737,193,937.28. The trade was a 0.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 86,500 shares of company stock worth $17,824,451. 38.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Morningstar Company Profile

Morningstar, Inc is a global provider of independent investment research, data, and financial technology. The company serves asset managers, financial advisors, institutions, retirement plans, and individual investors with information designed to support investment analysis and decision-making.

Its products and services include research and ratings on mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, stocks, bonds, and other investments; portfolio analysis and planning tools; investment-management and advisory services; and software and data solutions for financial professionals and institutions.

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