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Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN) is a premier American financial services firm based in Chicago, Illinois, founded in 1984 by Joe Mansueto. It is widely recognized for its independent investment research and management services, catering primarily to financial advisers, asset managers, and individual investors.
Core Operations: Morningstar focuses on two primary sectors: data and research. The company offers comprehensive data on a myriad of investment vehicles including mutual funds, stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), closed-end funds, separate accounts, and variable annuities. Additionally, Morningstar tracks real-time market data for equity, derivative, and currency exchanges, providing crucial insights for the financial industry.
Research Insights: The firm's research arm delivers in-depth analyst reports on both passive and active mutual funds, alternative funds, and college saving plans, setting a high standard for accuracy and reliability. With a robust team of analysts, Morningstar ensures that financial professionals and investors have access to detailed, unbiased information.
Recent Achievements: As of September 30, 2023, Morningstar managed approximately $264 billion in assets through its investment advisory subsidiaries. The company has also expanded its influence across 32 countries, emphasizing its commitment to global investment insights.
Current Projects: Morningstar Wealth recently announced the addition of third-party Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs) to its U.S. Wealth Platform. This strategic move, featuring top-tier asset management firms like AllianceBernstein and Putnam Investments, aims to provide advisors with a broader array of investment choices, thereby enhancing the advisor-investor relationship.
Morningstar's dedication to empowering financial advisors and investors is evident from its continuous efforts to innovate and expand its offerings. From real-time global market data to managed portfolios, the company stands out as a leader in the financial services sector.
For more information, visit www.morningstar.com/company or follow Morningstar on X @MorningstarInc.
Morningstar (MORN) reported strong financial results for Q4 and full-year 2024, with notable growth across key metrics. Q4 revenue increased 9.7% to $591.0 million, with organic revenue up 10.6%. The company's operating income surged 78.2% to $168.2 million, including a $64.0 million gain from the sale of US TAMP assets.
Full-year 2024 highlights include an 11.6% revenue increase to $2.3 billion, with operating income up 110.2% to $484.8 million. Diluted EPS grew 160.8% to $8.58. Cash flow performance was robust, with operating cash flow up 87% to $591.6 million and free cash flow increasing 127.5% to $448.9 million.
Key segment performance showed PitchBook revenue growing 12.5% to $162.5 million, Morningstar Credit up 33.8% to $82.3 million, and Morningstar Data and Analytics increasing 1.7% to $196.0 million.
Morningstar (Nasdaq: MORN) has launched the Morningstar® PitchBook Buyout Replication Index™, designed to mirror private equity buyout investments through publicly listed equities. The index tracks small- and mid-cap stocks that share characteristics with private equity buyout targets, focusing on companies with strong free cash flows.
The innovative index employs a systematic approach, combining industry exposure aligned with the U.S. buyout market and utilizing machine learning for constituent selection. It addresses key challenges in private equity benchmarking, including the lack of representative benchmarks and issues with traditional equity indexes that fail to capture the distinct private equity approach.
Key features include private equity-like returns with enhanced liquidity, AI-driven innovation through neural networks, accurate representation of buyout portfolio characteristics, and improved transparency with daily marked-to-market updates. The index leverages PitchBook's extensive data on buyout funds and transactions.
Morningstar (MORN) and SS&C Technologies announced a strategic alliance integrating SS&C's Black Diamond® Wealth Platform with Morningstar's new Direct Advisory Suite. This integration combines Morningstar's investment data, research, and portfolio analysis with Black Diamond's portfolio accounting, client communications, and performance reporting capabilities.
The Direct Advisory Suite, built on Morningstar's Direct Platform, represents the next evolution of Advisor Workstation, which serves over 175,000 advisors. It features extensive research tools, advanced portfolio analytics, and AI-powered assistance. The approximately 2,700 wealth management firms using Black Diamond will have optional access to these capabilities.
As part of this transition, Morningstar will retire Morningstar Office, offering users a customized migration process to Black Diamond while maintaining access to Morningstar's data and research.
Morningstar (Nasdaq: MORN) announced it will release its fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 financial results after market close on Wednesday, February 26, 2025. The company noted that it does not conduct analyst conference calls. However, investors can submit their questions directly to Morningstar via email at investors@morningstar.com.
Morningstar (Nasdaq: MORN) has launched the Morningstar PitchBook Unicorn 30 Index (UI30), tracking the 30 largest and most liquid late-stage venture capital-backed private companies valued at $1 billion or more. The index, developed through collaboration between Morningstar Indexes and PitchBook, includes prominent companies like SpaceX, Stripe, OpenAI, and SHEIN.
The index employs screens for liquidity challenges and uses a market-driven pricing model combining actual transaction data from multiple secondary market price aggregators. It aims to provide greater transparency and accessibility to the late-stage venture capital market for various investor uses, from benchmarking to investable product creation.
According to Morningstar, venture capital now represents 9% of the global equity market, up from 2% a decade ago, highlighting the growing importance of private markets in the global economy.
Morningstar (Nasdaq: MORN) has launched Direct Advisory Suite, a modern software application designed to streamline financial advisors' workflows. Built on the Direct Platform, this comprehensive solution enhances the capabilities of the current Advisor Workstation, offering improved features for research, portfolio building, and client proposal generation.
The suite includes comprehensive research tools powered by Morningstar's database, investment planning features utilizing the Morningstar Portfolio Risk Score, proposal generation with Scenario Builder, one-click portfolio optimization, and an AI chatbot named Mo for quick insights. The platform aims to improve advisor efficiency and client engagement.
Direct Advisory Suite is currently available in North America, with planned expansion to EMEA and APAC markets later this year. Existing Advisor Workstation clients will be upgraded to Direct Advisory Suite throughout 2025.
Morningstar (MORN) has appointed Michael Holt as its new Chief Financial Officer, effective January 1, 2025, succeeding Jason Dubinsky who will transition to a consulting role. Holt, currently serving as Chief Strategy Officer and president of the Research and Investments group, will report to CEO Kunal Kapoor and lead the global finance organization.
Holt joined Morningstar in 2008 as an equity analyst and has held various leadership positions, including leading the global equity research team from 2014 to 2018. In his current role, he oversees a 400-person team responsible for equity and managed investment analysis, ratings, and portfolio construction. He holds a CFA designation, an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a bachelor's degree from Indiana University.
Morningstar (Nasdaq: MORN) has announced an increase in its quarterly dividend to 45.5 cents per share, representing a 12.3% increase from the previous rate of 40.5 cents. The next dividend will be payable on January 31, 2025, to shareholders of record as of January 3, 2025. This increase raises the expected annualized dividend from $1.62 to $1.82 per share. The company has also outlined three additional planned dividend payments for 2025, scheduled for April 30, July 31, and October 31, subject to board approval.
Morningstar DBRS has appointed Richard Sibthorpe as Head of Canada and Global Investor Strategy, succeeding Douglas E. Turnbull who retired in September. Sibthorpe, who joined from BMO Capital Markets with over 20 years of credit markets experience, will oversee Toronto operations and senior outreach activities while focusing on emerging opportunities in evolving lending markets. The appointment comes amid increasing demand for credit ratings driven by private credit markets expansion and changing risk criteria. Morningstar DBRS currently rates over 4,000 issuers and 60,000 securities globally, positioning itself as one of the top four credit rating agencies worldwide.
Morningstar has released its Medalist Ratings for 59 of the nation's leading 529 college-savings plans, representing over 95% of the industry's assets as of August 31, 2024. The ratings, determined by Morningstar's research analysts, include 11 upgrades and nine downgrades. This comprehensive evaluation covers the majority of the 529 college savings market, providing valuable insights for investors and education savers.
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