JPMorgan Chase & Co. Acquires 82,154 Shares of Morningstar, Inc. $MORN

JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) by 34.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 318,478 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 82,154 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Morningstar were worth $73,891,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Krilogy Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Morningstar in the third quarter worth $491,000. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in Morningstar by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,822 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $887,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC purchased a new position in Morningstar during the 3rd quarter valued at about $210,000. Machina Capital S.A.S. bought a new stake in shares of Morningstar during the third quarter valued at about $709,000. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Morningstar by 6.5% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 110,885 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,726,000 after buying an additional 6,746 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.02% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 7,304 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chairman directly owned 8,184,212 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,314,629,973.56. This represents a 0.09% decrease in their position. The sale 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 67,621 shares of company stock valued at $11,203,293. 36.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Morningstar Price Performance

MORN stock opened at $162.94 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $197.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $218.99. The stock has a market cap of $6.45 billion, a PE ratio of 18.29 and a beta of 1.08. Morningstar, Inc. has a one year low of $149.08 and a one year high of $325.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

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

Morningstar Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 2nd. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. Morningstar’s payout ratio is 22.45%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on MORN. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective 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. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Morningstar from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. UBS Group set a $280.00 price target on shares of Morningstar in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Morningstar from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $236.50.

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.