Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) Stock Rating Lowered by Wall Street Zen

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings raised Morningstar from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Monday. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Morningstar from $257.00 to $193.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, UBS Group set a $280.00 price target on shares of Morningstar in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $236.50.

Morningstar Stock Performance

Shares of MORN stock opened at $175.22 on Friday. Morningstar has a one year low of $149.08 and a one year high of $316.71. 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 50 day moving average price of $177.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $188.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.84 and a beta of 1.00.

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 33.14% and a net margin of 16.06%.The firm had revenue of $644.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $626.91 million.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Morningstar news, Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 7,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.23, for a total value of $1,205,167.50. Following the transaction, the chairman directly owned 8,114,492 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,348,872,005.16. This represents a 0.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 64,720 shares of company stock valued at $11,169,471. Corporate insiders own 38.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Morningstar

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MORN. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Morningstar by 85.4% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,136,213 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $246,910,000 after purchasing an additional 523,387 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Morningstar by 106.9% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 608,244 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $141,119,000 after acquiring an additional 314,275 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Morningstar in the 4th quarter worth approximately $62,367,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Morningstar by 1,196.5% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 260,978 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $56,713,000 after acquiring an additional 240,848 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Voloridge Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Morningstar by 362.8% in the 3rd quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 187,128 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $43,416,000 after acquiring an additional 146,693 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.02% of the company’s stock.

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.