Insider Selling: Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) Chairman Sells $1,501,040.00 in Stock

Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) Chairman Joseph Mansueto sold 7,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.04, for a total transaction of $1,501,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman directly owned 7,969,696 shares in the company, valued at $1,650,045,859.84. This trade represents a 0.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Morningstar Trading Down 0.7%

MORN opened at $215.97 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. The company has a market cap of $8.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.45 and a beta of 0.99. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $178.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $176.67. Morningstar, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $141.49 and a fifty-two week high of $266.05.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Morningstar

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Grove Bank & Trust bought a new position in shares of Morningstar during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Morningstar during the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC acquired a new stake in Morningstar during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Morningstar during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, WPG Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Morningstar by 36.0% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MORN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised Morningstar from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 21st. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Morningstar from $280.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings raised Morningstar from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Friday, August 14th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $212.00 target price on shares of Morningstar in a report on Friday, June 26th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $210.00 target price on Morningstar in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $227.33.

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.