Vanguard Group Inc. Decreases Holdings in Morningstar, Inc. $MORN

Key Points

• Vanguard trimmed its stake in Morningstar by 9.0% in Q4 to 2,374,364 shares (about 5.77% of the company), valued at roughly $515.97 million.
• Insiders have been selling: Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 7,304 shares (≈$1.17M) on Feb. 17, insiders sold 99,143 shares over the past 90 days and now own 38.80% of the stock.
• Morningstar reported an earnings beat (Q: EPS $3.18 vs. $2.41 est., revenue $644.8M vs. $626.9M), but analysts are mixed—consensus rating is "Hold" with an average price target of $236.50.

Vanguard Group Inc. cut its stake in shares of Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN - Free Report) by 9.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,374,364 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 235,971 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 5.77% of Morningstar worth $515,973,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in Morningstar by 23.6% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 178 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Cardinal Capital Management raised its stake in Morningstar by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Cardinal Capital Management now owns 13,902 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $3,225,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. WPG Advisers LLC raised its stake in Morningstar by 36.0% during the 4th quarter. WPG Advisers LLC now owns 185 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC raised its stake in Morningstar by 54.2% during the 3rd quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ballentine Partners LLC raised its stake in Morningstar by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 1,932 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $448,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. 57.02% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 7,304 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.63, for a total value of $1,173,241.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman owned 8,184,212 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,314,629,973.56. This represents a 0.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 99,143 shares of company stock valued at $16,560,243. Corporate insiders own 38.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. 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 research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Morningstar from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday. UBS Group set a $280.00 price objective on shares of Morningstar in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Morningstar from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $236.50.

Morningstar Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of Morningstar stock opened at $167.67 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.07 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. The company has a fifty day moving average of $176.71 and a 200 day moving average of $196.21. Morningstar, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $149.08 and a fifty-two week high of $316.71.

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $3.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.41 by $0.77. The company had revenue of $644.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $626.91 million. Morningstar had a net margin of 16.06% and a return on equity of 33.14%.

Morningstar 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.

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