Fluent Financial LLC Makes New Investment in Morningstar, Inc. $MORN

Fluent Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 11,691 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,541,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bamco Inc. NY grew its position in Morningstar by 9.2% in the third quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 1,414,305 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $328,133,000 after acquiring an additional 118,979 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $141,119,000 after acquiring an additional 314,275 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Morningstar by 26.7% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 420,127 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $97,482,000 after purchasing an additional 88,496 shares in the last quarter. Liontrust Investment Partners LLP grew its holdings in shares of Morningstar by 21.3% in the 2nd quarter. Liontrust Investment Partners LLP now owns 391,816 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $123,003,000 after purchasing an additional 68,896 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Morningstar by 34.8% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 318,478 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $73,891,000 after purchasing an additional 82,154 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on MORN. UBS Group set a $280.00 price target on shares of Morningstar in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Morningstar from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Morningstar from $257.00 to $193.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Morningstar from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.50.

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 7,304 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.63, for a total transaction of $1,173,241.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman directly owned 8,184,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,314,629,973.56. This represents a 0.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In the last three months, insiders sold 85,243 shares of company stock valued at $14,219,154. 36.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Morningstar Stock Down 2.4%

Shares of NASDAQ MORN opened at $156.81 on Friday. Morningstar, Inc. has a 1 year low of $149.08 and a 1 year high of $316.71. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $180.11 and its 200-day moving average is $206.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.21 billion, a PE ratio of 17.60 and a beta of 1.10.

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

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.