Stock of the Day

May 21, 2021

Morningstar (MORN)

$218.94
+$1.29 (+0.6%)
Market Cap: $8.16B

About Morningstar

Morningstar, Inc. provides independent investment insights in the United States, Asia. Australia, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company operates in five segments: Morningstar Data and Analytics; PitchBook; Morningstar Wealth; Morningstar Credit; and Morningstar Retirement. The company offers managing investments, including mutual funds, ETFs, separate accounts, collective investment trusts, model portfolios, equities, and fixed income securities; Morningstar Direct is an investment-analysis and reporting platform; Morningstar Advisor Workstation, a suite of tool to provide help and advice. The PitchBook segment provides data and research covering the private capital markets comprising venture capital, private equity, private credit and bank loans, and merger and acquisition activities; and pitchbook platform. It provides model portfolios and wealth platforms; Morningstar Managed Portfolios, an advisor service with model portfolios designed for fee-based independent financial advisors; and Morningstar.com that discovers, evaluates, and monitors stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds; build and monitor portfolios and markets. In addition, the company provides credit ratings, research, data, and credit analytics solutions; Morningstar DBRS which offers securitizations and other structured finance instruments, such as asset-backed securities, residential mortgage-backed securities, commercial mortgage-backed securities, and collateralized loan obligations. Further, it offers managed retirement accounts, fiduciary services, Morningstar Lifetime Allocation funds, and custom models; Morningstar Indexes offers market indexes used for performance benchmarks and as the basis for investment products and other portfolio strategies; and Morningstar Sustainalytics provides environmental, social and governance data, research, analysis, and insights. Morningstar, Inc. was incorporated in 1984 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Today's Trend

Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN) shares have moved higher, with the latest news flow providing a mix of supportive fundamentals and relatively limited company-specific concerns.

  • Recent institutional activity was supportive: several funds, including IEQ Capital, Quantbot Technologies and Callan Family Office, initiated or added positions during the second quarter. Institutional investors collectively own about 57% of Morningstar’s shares, indicating substantial professional-investor participation.
  • The company’s latest quarterly results showed strong execution. Morningstar reported earnings of $3.10 per share versus the $2.83 consensus estimate, while revenue of $663.2 million exceeded expectations of $649.7 million. The earnings beat remains an important fundamental catalyst for MORN.
  • Chairman Joseph Mansueto sold 15,474 shares for approximately $3.07 million across August 10–12. The transactions were made under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan and reduced his holdings by only about 0.19%, leaving him with roughly 7.99 million shares. The sales therefore appear unlikely to signal a major change in his outlook. SEC insider trading filing
  • Several headlines refer to Morningstar’s research coverage of other companies, including stocks that lost value, August buy-and-sell ideas, and a bullish long-term revenue outlook for CoreWeave (CRWV). These are editorial or analyst views and do not represent changes to Morningstar, Inc.’s own financial outlook. CoreWeave revenue outlook article
  • Analyst sentiment remains mixed. While BMO Capital Markets maintained an outperform rating and UBS retained a buy rating, Weiss Ratings downgraded the stock to sell, and the consensus rating remains Hold. This could limit upside if investors focus on valuation after the recent advance.

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