Insider Selling: Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) Chairman Sells 6,594 Shares of Stock

Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) Chairman Joseph Mansueto sold 6,594 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $213.75, for a total value of $1,409,467.50. Following the sale, the chairman owned 7,955,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,700,423,145. The trade was a 0.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Morningstar Trading Up 2.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:MORN traded up $4.92 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $213.65. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 357,140 shares, compared to its average volume of 513,496. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.23 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.06. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $176.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $176.20. Morningstar, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $141.49 and a fifty-two week high of $266.05.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Morningstar

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MORN. Bamco Inc. NY acquired a new position in Morningstar during the second quarter worth $545,937,000. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Morningstar during the second quarter valued at about $324,792,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of 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 increased its position in shares of Morningstar by 106.9% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 608,244 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $141,119,000 after acquiring an additional 314,275 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Morningstar in the 4th quarter worth about $62,367,000. Institutional investors own 57.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on MORN shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Morningstar from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, June 21st. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $212.00 target price on shares of Morningstar in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Morningstar from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Friday. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $210.00 price target on shares of Morningstar in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Morningstar from $280.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.