Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Purchases New Holdings in Morningstar, Inc. $MORN

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 3,676 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $574,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MORN. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Morningstar in the second quarter valued at $29,000. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC acquired a new position in Morningstar during the third quarter valued at $26,000. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Morningstar in the 1st quarter worth about $26,000. Grove Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in Morningstar in the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its position in Morningstar by 23.6% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 178 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. 57.02% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MORN. UBS Group dropped their target price on Morningstar from $280.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Morningstar from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Friday, August 14th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Morningstar from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $212.00 price objective on shares of Morningstar in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $210.00 target price on shares of Morningstar in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $227.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Morningstar news, Chairman Joseph D. Mansueto sold 5,659 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.84, for a total value of $1,238,415.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman directly owned 7,938,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,737,193,937.28. The trade was a 0.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 86,500 shares of company stock valued at $17,824,451 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 38.80% of the company’s stock.

Morningstar Stock Performance

Shares of MORN stock opened at $218.94 on Tuesday. Morningstar, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $141.49 and a fifty-two week high of $263.67. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $185.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $178.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The firm has a market cap of $8.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.73 and a beta of 0.99.

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

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.