15,846 Shares in Morningstar, Inc. $MORN Bought by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new position in Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 15,846 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,472,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Morningstar in the 2nd quarter worth about $324,792,000. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Morningstar by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,006,325 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $435,995,000 after acquiring an additional 47,360 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Morningstar by 85.4% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,136,213 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $246,910,000 after acquiring an additional 523,387 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Morningstar by 48.0% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 900,297 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $195,644,000 after purchasing an additional 292,053 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Morningstar by 9.7% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 517,769 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $87,514,000 after purchasing an additional 45,798 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MORN has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Morningstar from $280.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $210.00 price target on Morningstar in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $212.00 price objective on shares of Morningstar in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Wall Street Zen cut Morningstar from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Morningstar from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Friday, August 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $227.33.

Morningstar Stock Down 0.0%

Morningstar stock opened at $209.80 on Thursday. Morningstar, Inc. has a 12 month low of $141.49 and a 12 month high of $261.37. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $187.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $179.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. The firm has a market cap of $7.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.87 and a beta of 1.00.

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The business services provider reported $3.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.83 by $0.27. Morningstar had a return on equity of 38.57% and a net margin of 16.43%.The firm had revenue of $663.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $649.72 million.

Insider Activity at Morningstar

In other news, Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 5,659 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.84, for a total transaction of $1,238,415.56. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 transaction 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 86,500 shares of company stock valued at $17,824,451 in the last three months. Insiders own 38.80% of the company’s stock.

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.