Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) Increases Dividend to $0.50 Per Share

Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 5th. Investors of record on Friday, January 2nd will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share by the business services provider on Friday, January 30th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 2nd. This is a 9.9% increase from Morningstar’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46.

Morningstar has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 16 years. Morningstar has a payout ratio of 19.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings.

Morningstar Trading Down 0.5%

MORN traded down $1.18 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $216.83. 35,358 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 287,745. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $214.60 and a 200 day moving average of $247.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.67 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.04. Morningstar has a 12-month low of $202.89 and a 12-month high of $339.99.

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The business services provider reported $2.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.42 by $0.13. Morningstar had a net margin of 15.70% and a return on equity of 25.07%. The company had revenue of $617.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $603.29 million.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on MORN. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Morningstar from $350.00 to $320.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Morningstar in a research note on Monday. Wall Street Zen upgraded Morningstar from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 28th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets set a $250.00 price objective on Morningstar in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.00.

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.