Michael Holt Sells 270 Shares of Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) Stock

Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN) CFO Michael Holt sold 270 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.05, for a total value of $44,833.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 12,326 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,046,732.30. This represents a 2.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Michael Holt also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, March 4th, Michael Holt bought 1,000 shares of Morningstar stock. The stock was bought at an average cost of $186.59 per share, for a total transaction of $186,590.00.

Morningstar Trading Up 0.4%

NASDAQ MORN opened at $172.55 on Thursday. Morningstar, Inc. has a 12 month low of $149.08 and a 12 month high of $316.71. The stock has a market cap of $6.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.57 and a beta of 0.99. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $175.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $192.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $3.18 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.41 by $0.77. Morningstar had a return on equity of 33.14% and a net margin of 16.06%.The firm had revenue of $644.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $626.91 million.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new position in Morningstar in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Morningstar in the first quarter valued at about $26,000. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC bought a new position in Morningstar in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Morningstar in the second quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new position in Morningstar in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Institutional investors own 57.02% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Morningstar

Here are the key news stories impacting Morningstar this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Morningstar Credit Analytics launched Corporate Credit Analytics, a new toolset aimed at improving transparency and consistency in private credit analysis, which could support longer-term demand for the company’s analytics offerings. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: The company’s chairman, Joseph D. Mansueto, disclosed multiple pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 sales over May 18-20. While these are routine insider transactions, they can still weigh on sentiment because investors often interpret repeated executive selling cautiously.
• Neutral Sentiment: Morningstar’s recent earnings remained strong, with the company reporting EPS and revenue above expectations and posting solid profitability metrics. That background provides some support for the stock even as shares remain below their 50-day and 200-day averages.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on MORN. UBS Group set a $280.00 price objective on Morningstar in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Wall Street Zen raised Morningstar from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Weiss Ratings cut Morningstar from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Morningstar from $257.00 to $193.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $236.50.

About Morningstar

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.