Merit Financial Group LLC Has $1.28 Million Stock Holdings in Morningstar, Inc. $MORN

Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) by 91.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,896 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,815 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Morningstar were worth $1,281,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MORN. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in shares of 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 worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth increased its stake in shares of Morningstar by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 3,838 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,151,000 after purchasing an additional 126 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Morningstar by 278.2% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 208 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $62,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Morningstar by 2,450.0% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 561 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $176,000 after purchasing an additional 539 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its stake in shares of Morningstar by 58.8% during the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 138,932 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $43,615,000 after purchasing an additional 51,449 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.02% of the company’s stock.

Key Morningstar News

Here are the key news stories impacting Morningstar this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Morningstar has begun a global rollout of an updated Medalist Rating — a visible product upgrade that can strengthen Morningstar’s ratings franchise and help retain or grow advisor/subscriber revenue. Morningstar begins global rollout of updated Medalist Rating
• Positive Sentiment: Morningstar is considering changes to index construction ahead of the SpaceX IPO — a move that signals the firm is positioning its index business to capture licensing and ETF flows tied to major new listings. That could be a longer?term revenue opportunity. Morningstar considers revamping index construction ahead of SpaceX IPO
• Positive Sentiment: Recent fundamentals remain supportive: Morningstar’s last reported quarter beat expectations on both EPS ($2.71 vs. $2.34) and revenue (~$641.1M vs. ~$634.4M), which underpins the company’s recurring?revenue profile and margins.
• Neutral Sentiment: Morningstar may relocate to Chicago’s Thompson Center — a facilities move that could affect office costs and local presence but is not a major near?term revenue driver. Morningstar may move into Chicago’s Thompson Center
• Neutral Sentiment: Multiple press items from Morningstar Japan K.K. redistributed third?party company news (SBI Global Asset Management earnings, dividend lift, rebrand and stock?option issuance). These reflect Morningstar’s local news/distribution activity but have limited direct impact on MORN’s corporate earnings. SBI Global Asset Management Beats Full-Year Forecast
• Neutral Sentiment: Morningstar’s ongoing ratings and research activity (examples: a 5?star ETF rating for QTUM and analyst commentary on names like EMCOR) show continued influence in the market, supporting its data/licensing value though the impact on near?term stock moves is mixed. QTUM tops $4B AUM, earns 5-star Morningstar ratingEMCOR coverage (mentions Morningstar analyst views)
• Negative Sentiment: Technical and valuation pressure: the shares are trading below the 200?day moving average and volume is elevated, suggesting profit?taking and short?term selling pressure despite solid fundamentals. That technical weakness and broader market sentiment appear to be driving today’s decline.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MORN has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group set a $280.00 price target on shares of Morningstar in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Morningstar from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Morningstar from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Morningstar from $257.00 to $193.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $236.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Michael Holt purchased 1,000 shares of Morningstar stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $186.59 per share, with a total value of $186,590.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,768,873.20. This trade represents a 11.79% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 3,122 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.32, for a total transaction of $569,203.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman directly owned 8,138,232 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,483,762,458.24. This trade represents a 0.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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.

Morningstar Price Performance

Shares of Morningstar stock opened at $177.63 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Morningstar, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $149.08 and a fifty-two week high of $316.71. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $174.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $198.25. The company has a market cap of $6.84 billion, a PE ratio of 19.94 and a beta of 1.11.

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The business services provider reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.37. Morningstar had a net margin of 15.30% and a return on equity of 27.94%. The firm had revenue of $641.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $634.43 million.

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.