Contents

History [ edit ]

Founder Joe Mansueto initially had the idea for Morningstar in 1982 while reviewing mutual fund annual reports he had requested from several prominent fund managers. [ 3 ] However, it was only after a year working as a stock analyst for Harris Associates. seeing the fund industry and potential competitors up close, that he was convinced that the opportunity was there. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] Morningstar was subsequently founded in 1984 from his one-bedroom Chicago apartment with an initial investment of US$ 80,000. [ 5 ] The name Morningstar is taken from the last sentence in Walden . a book by Henry David Thoreau ; the sun is but a morning star. [ 5 ] [ 6 ]

In July 1999 Morningstar accepted an investment of US$91 million from SoftBank in return for a 20% stake in the company. The two companies had the previous year formed a joint venture in Japan. [ 6 ] [ 7 ]

Morningstar’s initial public offering occurred on May 3, 2005, with 7,612,500 shares at $18.50 each. [ 8 ] The manner in which Morningstar went public is notable. They elected to follow Google ‘s footsteps and use the OpenIPO method rather than the traditional method. This allowed individual investors to bid on the price of the stock, and allowed all investors equal access.

As of February 2015, Joe Mansueto owned approximately 55% of the outstanding shares in Morningstar. [ 9 ]

Operations [ edit ]

Morningstar provides data on approximately 500,000 investment offerings, including stocks. mutual funds. and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 14 million equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its registered investment advisor subsidiaries and has approximately $170 billion in assets under advisement and management as of Dec. 31, 2014. The company has operations in 27 countries. [ 1 ]

Morningstar created the Morningstar Rating™, Morningstar Analyst Rating™, Morningstar Style Box™, and other proprietary measures.

The Morningstar Investment Management unit creates custom investment solutions that combine award-winning research and global resources with the proprietary data of Morningstar, Inc. (“Morningstar”). With approximately $170 billion in assets under management and advisement, the unit provides comprehensive retirement, investment advisory, and portfolio management services for financial institutions, plan sponsors, and advisors.

Acquisitions [ edit ]

Since 2003 Morningstar has undertaken several corporate acquisitions.