Bank of America Corp DE Increases Stake in Morningstar, Inc. $MORN

Key Points

• Bank of America increased its Morningstar stake by 11.7% in the first quarter, owning 183,575 shares valued at approximately $31.0 million. Institutional investors collectively hold 57.02% of Morningstar’s stock.
• Analyst views remain mixed: Morningstar has a consensus “Hold” rating and an average price target of $227.33, despite recent upgrades and a downgrade from Weiss Ratings.
• Morningstar exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $3.10 in earnings per share versus estimates of $2.83 and revenue of $663.2 million versus the $649.7 million consensus.

Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN - Free Report) by 11.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 183,575 shares of the business services provider's stock after buying an additional 19,264 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE owned 0.48% of Morningstar worth $31,033,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new stake in Morningstar in the fourth quarter worth $6,534,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in shares of Morningstar by 176.5% during the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 35,185 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $7,629,000 after buying an additional 22,459 shares in the last quarter. MidFirst Bank bought a new stake in shares of Morningstar during the 4th quarter valued at $3,400,000. Aurora Investment Counsel grew its position in shares of Morningstar by 151.9% in the 4th quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 9,596 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $2,085,000 after buying an additional 5,786 shares during the period. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morningstar in the 4th quarter worth about $2,980,000. 57.02% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MORN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Morningstar from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Sunday, June 21st. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Morningstar from $280.00 to $260.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $212.00 target price on shares of Morningstar in a report on Friday, June 26th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $210.00 price target on Morningstar in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Morningstar from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Morningstar has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $227.33.

Morningstar Trading Up 0.3%

Morningstar stock opened at $207.41 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.06. Morningstar, Inc. has a one year low of $141.49 and a one year high of $266.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.78 billion, a PE ratio of 19.64 and a beta of 0.99. The business's fifty day moving average is $175.79 and its 200 day moving average is $176.39.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Morningstar

In related news, Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 7,250 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.84, for a total transaction of $1,463,340.00. Following the transaction, the chairman owned 7,999,670 shares in the company, valued at $1,614,653,392.80. This represents a 0.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 71,944 shares of company stock worth $13,817,942 over the last three months. 38.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.

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