Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) Chairman Joseph Mansueto Sells 7,250 Shares

Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) Chairman Joseph Mansueto sold 7,250 shares of Morningstar stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.84, for a total transaction of $1,274,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman directly owned 8,066,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,418,499,521.60. This trade represents a 0.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Morningstar Stock Performance

Shares of MORN traded up $0.74 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $172.55. The stock had a trading volume of 448,999 shares, compared to its average volume of 562,626. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $175.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $192.72. Morningstar, Inc. has a one year low of $149.08 and a one year high of $316.71. The firm has a market cap of $6.56 billion, a PE ratio of 17.57 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

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

Institutional Trading of Morningstar

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Morningstar by 11.7% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 183,575 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $31,033,000 after purchasing an additional 19,264 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in Morningstar by 56.1% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 89,885 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $15,199,000 after purchasing an additional 32,296 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in Morningstar by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 1,775 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $300,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares in the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in Morningstar by 15.8% in the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 29,423 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,974,000 after purchasing an additional 4,016 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in Morningstar by 156.9% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 22,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,797,000 after purchasing an additional 13,724 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on MORN shares. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Morningstar from $257.00 to $193.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. UBS Group set a $280.00 target price on shares of Morningstar in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Morningstar from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Morningstar from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Morningstar currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $236.50.

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.