Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. Makes New Investment in Morningstar, Inc. $MORN

Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 6,810 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,151,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Morningstar in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC bought a new position in Morningstar during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Morningstar in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new stake in Morningstar in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC grew its position in shares of Morningstar by 120.5% in the 4th quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 172 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 94 shares during the last quarter. 57.02% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Morningstar news, Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 7,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.23, for a total transaction of $1,205,167.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman owned 8,114,492 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,348,872,005.16. This trade represents a 0.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 64,720 shares of company stock worth $11,169,471 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 38.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MORN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised Morningstar from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 21st. Weiss Ratings lowered Morningstar from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Morningstar from $280.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Morningstar in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $212.00 target price on shares of Morningstar in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Morningstar has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $227.33.

Morningstar Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:MORN opened at $169.25 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.24 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $170.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $180.15. Morningstar, Inc. has a 52-week low of $141.49 and a 52-week high of $292.75.

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $3.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.41 by $0.77. The company had revenue of $644.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $626.91 million. Morningstar had a return on equity of 33.14% and a net margin of 16.06%.

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.