Morningstar, Inc. $MORN Shares Bought by Royce & Associates LP

Royce & Associates LP lifted its stake in shares of Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) by 7.9% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 139,376 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 10,159 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Morningstar were worth $32,337,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Morningstar during the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. Quent Capital LLC bought a new stake in Morningstar in the third quarter valued at about $38,000. Clearstead Advisors LLC raised its stake in Morningstar by 54.2% during the third quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp bought a new position in Morningstar during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,000. Finally, State of Wyoming acquired a new position in shares of Morningstar in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $47,000. 57.02% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 7,304 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 $1,314,629,973.56. This represents a 0.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 82,121 shares of company stock valued at $13,649,951. Insiders own 36.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Morningstar Price Performance

NASDAQ MORN opened at $183.14 on Monday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $195.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $217.32. Morningstar, Inc. has a 52 week low of $149.08 and a 52 week high of $318.95. The stock has a market cap of $7.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.55 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88.

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The business services provider reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 30th. Investors of record on Friday, October 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 2nd. Morningstar’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.45%.

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.