Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.46 Per Share

Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 6th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a dividend of 0.455 per share by the business services provider on Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. This is a boost from Morningstar’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41.

Morningstar has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 0.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 15 consecutive years. Morningstar has a dividend payout ratio of 17.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings.

Morningstar Stock Performance

NASDAQ MORN opened at $358.02 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $339.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $316.87. Morningstar has a fifty-two week low of $269.51 and a fifty-two week high of $361.73. The company has a market cap of $15.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.29 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.14.

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The business services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.01 by ($0.01). Morningstar had a net margin of 14.69% and a return on equity of 23.28%. The firm had revenue of $569.40 million for the quarter.

Insider Activity at Morningstar

In other Morningstar news, Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 118 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.13, for a total transaction of $40,371.34. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 10,788,378 shares in the company, valued at $3,691,027,765.14. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director William M. Lyons sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.88, for a total value of $248,910.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 12,840 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,261,339.20. This represents a 5.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 57,244 shares of company stock worth $19,288,505 in the last 90 days. 39.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on MORN shares. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of Morningstar from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $340.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $352.00 target price on shares of Morningstar in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. StockNews.com downgraded Morningstar from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, UBS Group assumed coverage on Morningstar in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. They set a “buy” rating and a $390.00 price objective for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $360.67.

About Morningstar

Morningstar, Inc provides independent investment insights in the United States, Asia. Australia, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company operates in five segments: Morningstar Data and Analytics; PitchBook; Morningstar Wealth; Morningstar Credit; and Morningstar Retirement.