MidFirst Bank Acquires New Holdings in Morningstar, Inc. $MORN

MidFirst Bank bought a new position in shares of Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 18,560 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,896,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Grove Bank & Trust purchased a new position in Morningstar in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morningstar in the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Morningstar in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Morningstar during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, WPG Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of Morningstar by 36.0% during the 4th quarter. WPG Advisers LLC now owns 185 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MORN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $210.00 price objective on Morningstar in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Morningstar from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, June 21st. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Morningstar from $280.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $212.00 price target on shares of Morningstar in a report on Friday, June 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Morningstar from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $227.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Morningstar news, Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 7,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.27, for a total value of $1,415,707.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman owned 7,984,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,559,073,952.92. This represents a 0.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director William M. Lyons sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.00, for a total transaction of $199,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 12,904 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,567,896. The trade was a 7.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 57,966 shares of company stock valued at $11,343,298 in the last ninety days. 38.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Morningstar Trading Down 0.3%

Morningstar stock opened at $206.74 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $7.75 billion, a PE ratio of 19.58 and a beta of 0.99. Morningstar, Inc. has a 12 month low of $141.49 and a 12 month high of $266.05. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $176.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $176.17. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The business services provider reported $3.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.83 by $0.27. Morningstar had a net margin of 16.43% and a return on equity of 38.57%. The firm had revenue of $663.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $649.72 million.

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.