Methodology Documents

Morningstar has conducted research on active and passive investment strategies and their associated vehicles since 1986.

This paper outlines the key assumptions and details behind our quantitative equity rating methodology.

We believe that a company's intrinsic worth results from the future cash flows it can generate. The Morningstar Rating for stocks identifies stocks trading at a discount or premium to their intrinsic worth--or fair value estimate, in Morningstar terminology.

This document describes the rationale for, and the formulas and procedures used in, calculating the Morningstar Rating for funds (commonly called the “star rating”). This methodology applies to funds receiving a star rating from Morningstar.

This paper outlines the key assumptions and details behind our quantitative equity rating methodology.

Morningstar developed the Morningstar Equity Comparables system to give investors and financial professionals an objective benchmark for comparing companies. Morningstar Equity Comparables is genuinely different to other industry classification schemes. We start from the bottom up with comparable companies, as opposed to the top down with sector definitions. For every pair of companies, we determine how similar they are–anywhere from closely comparable to distantly related based on automated analysis of the companies' own business description. We automatically analyse the text of the business description and work out whether companies are talking about similar things as they describe their businesses. Businesses described in similar terms are comparable.

In May 2021, Morningstar will introduce several data points that will make it easier for investors to use the pillar scores.

In the biggest year for dividend cuts since 2008-09, high-quality, financially healthy companies were likelier to maintain payouts.

In this updated and expanded report, we build upon our original examination of synthetic exchange-traded funds in Europe, describing how the split between physical and synthetic ETFs in Europe has evolved in the past decade, citing the causes for the fal

This paper explores how gender representation has varied among defined-contribution plan administrators from 2000 to 2017 and the relationship between gender and plan quality.

The U.S. economic recovery paused at the end of 2020, as a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic caused a retreat from the return to normal activity. This is no indication that the recovery is finishing up for good, however. An end to the pandemic in t

This report aims to support investors interested in gauging environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities in the global food value chain. This is the seventh edition of Sustainalytics’ "10 for" series--an annual publication that focuses on

How a social signal can help investors steer away from low-quality investments.

China's economy has entirely recovered from the pandemic, with growth now running ahead of its prepandemic rate. However, we expect growth to slow in the coming years as China pivots away from countercyclical support and back to rebalancing its economy.

Our study aims to better understand which rules people think are important, what rules they use, and how rules are correlated with a well-established measure of financial well-being.

Helping remote workers with retirement managed accounts.

Crowd Sense helps investors gain a broader picture of investment popularity and places that popularity in the context of the underlying appeal of the investment.

The Disclosure grades issued in the Global Investor Experience study were based on the answers to 30 questions in a fixed-response survey completed by in-house, country-expert analysts, plus other inputs determined quantitatively by leveraging Morningsta

We believe that a company’s intrinsic worth results from the future cash flows it can generate. The Morningstar Rating for stocks identifies stocks trading at a discount or premium to their intrinsic worth--or fair value estimate, in Morningstar terminol

A look at Morningstar's Rating for Canada-domiciled funds.

Australian category classification system

How can advisors help their clients calmly and thoughtfully evaluate when to buy? We believe that proper framing--how advisors describe market volatility--can play a beneficial role.

This paper extends the original framework, including the ability to incorporate expectations/assumptions around: 1) active management alpha; 2) a more diversified and appropriate detailed asset allocation; 3) some of the possible benefits associated with

A new metric from Morningstar helps investors gauge which asset managers take ESG to heart.

Our first assessment of 100-plus strategies and 40 asset managers.

The Morningstar ESG Commitment Level offers a qualitative, analyst-driven evaluation of investment strategies and asset managers from an environmental, social, and governance perspective.

The Morningstar Style Box™, sometimes referred to as the Equity Style Box, was introduced in 1992 to help investors and advisors determine the investment style of a fund. It provides an intuitive visual representation of style that helps investors build

China's economy continued its remarkable rebound in the third quarter, with official real GDP growth accelerating to 4.9% year over year. This is only slightly below 2019 full-year growth of 6.1%, and as such, China has nearly shaken off entirely the eff

Our view that the U.S. economy would experience a very strong long-run recovery from COVID-19 was far from clear earlier in the year, but it has become the consensus view, thanks to several months of strong economic data. Our current forecast is that U.S