Morningstar Launches Interactive "Notebooks" to Extend Access to Data and Analytics Visualizations

CHICAGO, Sept. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ahead of the annual Morningstar Investment Conference, Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today announced a new analytics capability in Morningstar Direct coupling multi-faceted data sets with automated analysis to drive new insights that were previously challenging to draw out. Morningstar is accelerating the pace of interactive analytics and new research released in Morningstar Direct delivered through Notebooks, enabling investors' access to new diversity, ownership and performance insights.

"Morningstar was built on the idea that investors need access to data and research to make better informed financial decisions. As the available data has skyrocketed, so has pressure for financial professionals to harness and analyze it to help their clients and build new investment products," said Frannie Besztery, head of Morningstar Direct. "Existing Morningstar Notebooks have been well-received by clients, and we're excited to create the ability for users to code, implement, and share their own Notebooks on Morningstar Direct."

Financial professionals can use Notebooks to bring data to life in everyday research, whether it's to help analyze managers, build portfolios, or identify new sources of risk that otherwise they wouldn't have seen. Five individual Notebooks are currently available to users of Morningstar Direct today, and three additional datasets will be released via Notebooks by the end of 2021. The new data sets featured include: 

• Portfolio Manager Performance History, which maps the history of a portfolio manager's career and performance data of those funds during their tenure to aid in manager selection.
• Stock Ownership Analysis, which allows users to conduct equity ownership analysis on a specific lineup of funds and obtain insight into managers who recently established or divested their position in a selected stock.
• Firm Diversity Data, which tracks asset management firms' diversity makeup to add transparency and make it easier for asset owners to access this information and select firms that meet their diversity needs. 
• Investment Product Launches, which identifies new fund launches within a specified time period and country of sale; the data can be aggregated along several dimensions and shows detailed information about fund groups such as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) funds, exchange-traded funds, and index funds making it easier to keep track of new fund launches.
• Time Series Factor Regression Analysis, which breaks down returns into factor exposures to derive an investment's alpha and beta exposures to enable performance analysts at asset management firms to monitor their lineup. 

Later this year, Morningstar Direct users will be able to pilot the initial release of Analytics Lab, where they will be able to develop their own custom analytics and models. Analytics Lab is a hosted development environment that seamlessly combines Morningstar's expansive data sets and the power of Python's data science capabilities. Financial professionals, including data scientists, financial engineers and quantitative analysts, will be able to discover, analyze and engage with Morningstar's data ecosystem in powerful new ways.

To learn more about Morningstar Notebooks, click here. 

Morningstar Notebooks at the Morningstar Investment Conference  
Join Morningstar Sept. 22-24 for the annual Morningstar Investment Conference at McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, or via the digital conference experience. Morningstar will host a session, "Automating Manager Research Workflows with Analytics Lab," in the Morningstar Theater (Room 350) featuring Morningstar Notebooks on Wednesday, Sept. 22 from 2-2:30 p.m. CT. Senior Product Manager Eileen Bingle will show attendees new ways to engage with Morningstar research, analytics, and visualizations. 

Join Timothy Strauts, head of research and content for Morningstar Direct, at the Innovation Lab on the Exhibit Hall Floor from 10-11 a.m. CT on Thursday, Sept. 23, where attendees will be able to try and experience Notebooks on their own and ask questions. 

Press Experience at the Morningstar Investment Conference 
Members of the media are invited to learn how Morningstar Direct's Notebooks can help uncover relevant data and insights for storytelling as part of Morningstar's press-only event, "Driven By Data: How Morningstar Resources Can Give Your Story an Edge." The session will take place in-person and digitally on Wednesday, Sept. 22 from 2-3 p.m. CT.

Registration for the Morningstar Investment Conference is free for full-time, credentialed media, so please click here and select registration type as "Press."  The full conference agenda is available here.

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 owners, retirement plan providers and sponsors, and institutional investors in the debt and private capital markets. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings, including managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, debt securities, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with approximately $251 billion in assets under advisement and management as of June 30, 2021. The Company has operations in 29 countries. For more information, visit www.morningstar.com/company. Follow Morningstar on Twitter @MorningstarInc. 

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Media Contact:  
Sarah Wirth, +1 312 696-6037 or [email protected]  

SOURCE Morningstar, Inc.

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