Morningstar, Inc. Reports Fourth-Quarter, Full-Year 2019 Financial Results

About this update from Morningstar, Inc.

[{"type":"text","content":"CHICAGO, Feb. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today announced fourth-quarter and full-year 2019 financial results driven by strong revenue growth and cash flow.\n\"We're proud of the strides we made in empowering investor success in 2019, including the acquisition of DBRS, the fourth-largest global credit ratings agency,\" said Kunal Kapoor, Morningstar's chief executive officer. \"We're pleased with our integration progress to date and remain encouraged by our unique opportunity to improve transparency in the credit ratings space. In response to growing global demand for both low-cost and sustainable investment solutions, we made important senior-level hires and continued to innovate in the areas of indexes and ESG. We also expanded our advisor-focused offerings, which include Goal Bridge, a planning tool that connects financial planning to investment planning, and a new managed accounts solution that helps advisors better serve retirement plans.\n\"We continue to make strategic investments for growth across our portfolio through workforce additions in key areas, global facility expansions and improvements, ongoing infrastructure support, and product innovation. While these actions are contributing to an increase in operating expenses, we achieved record revenue and free cash flow in 2019. We're confident that the choices we're making will serve the modern investor well while positioning Morningstar for continued growth.\"\nFourth-Quarter 2019 Financial Highlights\nRevenue increased 26.5% to $332.4 million. DBRS Morningstar represented 17.1 percentage points of growth, while all other Morningstar product areas contributed 9.4 percentage points. Organic revenue growth, which excludes DBRS Morningstar and currency effects, was 9.7%1. Operating income decreased 19.5% to $39.7 million; adjusted operating income, which excludes all merger and acquisition (M&A)-related expenses and amortization, increased by 5.3%. Diluted net income per share declined 35.4% to $0.64 versus $0.99 in the prior period, which included the $0.07 per share dilutive impact of DBRS Morningstar and a $0.12 per share impact from the higher effective tax rate in the quarter.Full-Year 2019 Financial Highlights\nRevenue increased 15.6% to $1.2 billion; organic revenue growth was 8.4...

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