Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) Rating Increased to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Saturday morning.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Weiss Ratings lowered Morningstar from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. UBS Group set a $280.00 price target on Morningstar in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Morningstar from $257.00 to $193.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $236.50.

Morningstar Stock Up 0.2%

NASDAQ MORN opened at $169.03 on Friday. Morningstar has a 52 week low of $149.08 and a 52 week high of $316.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $176.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $196.41. The firm has a market cap of $6.43 billion, a PE ratio of 17.21 and a beta of 0.99.

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $3.18 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.41 by $0.77. Morningstar had a return on equity of 33.14% and a net margin of 16.06%.The business had revenue of $644.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $626.91 million.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Morningstar news, Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 7,304 shares of Morningstar stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was 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 directly owned 8,184,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,314,629,973.56. The trade was a 0.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Over the last three months, insiders sold 84,643 shares of company stock valued at $14,088,066. Insiders own 38.80% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Morningstar

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in shares of Morningstar by 23.6% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 178 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Cardinal Capital Management grew its position in shares of Morningstar by 0.3% during the third quarter. Cardinal Capital Management now owns 13,902 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,225,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. WPG Advisers LLC grew its position in shares of Morningstar by 36.0% during the fourth quarter. WPG Advisers LLC now owns 185 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Morningstar by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,423 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $309,000 after buying an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearstead Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Morningstar by 54.2% during the third quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. 57.02% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.