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8-K - 8-K - Morningstar, Inc.a15-24621_18k.htm
EX-99.1 - EX-99.1 - Morningstar, Inc.a15-24621_1ex99d1.htm

Exhibit 99.2

 

 

Contacts:

 

Media: Margaret Kirch Cohen, +1 312-696-6383 or margaret.cohen@morningstar.com

 

Carling Spelhaug, +1 312-696-6150 or carling.spelhaug@morningstar.com

 

Investors may submit questions to investors@morningstar.com.

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Morningstar, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend; Increases Dividend by 16 Percent and Share Repurchase Authorization by $300 Million

 

CHICAGO, Dec. 4, 2015—The board of directors of Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today declared a quarterly dividend of 22 cents per share payable Jan. 29, 2016, to shareholders of record as of Jan. 8, 2016. The declaration reflects a 16 percent increase in the quarterly dividend to 22 cents per share from 19 cents.

 

While subsequent dividends will be subject to board approval, the company expects to pay three additional dividends in 2016:

 

Record Date

 

Payable Date

 

 

 

April 8, 2016

 

April 29, 2016

 

 

 

July 8, 2016

 

July 29, 2016

 

 

 

Oct. 7, 2016

 

Oct. 28, 2016

 

Morningstar’s board also approved a $300 million increase to the company’s share repurchase authorization, bringing the total authorization to $1.0 billion. Year to date as of Dec. 1, 2015, the company had repurchased a total of 1.2 million shares for approximately $92.1 million and has approximately 43.5 million shares outstanding. Since announcing its share repurchase program in October 2010, the company has repurchased 9.3 million shares for approximately $618.6 million. Of the $1.0 billion now authorized under the program, $381.4 million remains for future repurchases.

 

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About Morningstar, Inc.

 

Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, and retirement plan providers and sponsors. Morningstar provides data on more than 500,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 17 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 investment advisory subsidiaries, with more than $170 billion in assets under advisement and management as of Sept. 30, 2015. The company has operations in 27 countries.

 

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

 

This press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is used in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on our current expectations about future events or future financial performance. Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain, and often contain words such as “may,” “could,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “seek,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” or “continue.” These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the events we discuss not to occur or to differ significantly from what we expect. For us, these risks and uncertainties include, among others, liability for any losses that result from an actual or claimed breach of our fiduciary duties; failing to maintain and protect our brand, independence, and reputation; failing to differentiate our products and continuously create innovative, proprietary research tools; failing to respond to technological change, keep pace with new technology developments, or adopt a successful technology strategy; liability related to our storage of personal information related to individuals as well as portfolio and account-level information; compliance failures, regulatory action, or changes in laws applicable to our investment advisory or credit rating operations; downturns in the financial sector, global financial markets, and global economy; the effect of market volatility on revenue from asset-based fees; a prolonged outage of our database, technology-based products and services, or network facilities; challenges faced by our non-U.S. operations, including the concentration of data and development work at our offshore facilities in China and India; and trends in the mutual fund industry, including the increasing popularity of passively managed investment vehicles. A more complete description of these risks and uncertainties can be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014. If any of these risks and uncertainties materialize, our actual future results may vary significantly from what we expected. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events.

 

All dollar and percentage comparisons, which are often accompanied by words such as “increase,” “decrease,” “grew,” “declined, “ or “was similar” refer to a comparison with the same period in the previous year unless otherwise stated.

 

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©2015 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

MORN-C

 

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