Search This Blog

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

New Morningstar.com Features

Several new features have been added to the Morningstar.com® Library Edition, an online database created for libraries and available for free in the Library's Research Center.

Morningstar.com Library Edition is based on Morningstar's investment Web site, Morningstar.com, and offers proprietary stock and mutual fund analysis, screening tools, and portfolio-building features.

Recent additions to Morningstar.com Library Edition include:

Stock Charts: Morningstar has revamped its stock charting capability to offer more than 50 different chart analyses for all investing styles and levels of experience. The charts, designed to help investors better understand and evaluate historical data, range from a simple price graph to complete and technical analyses. Morningstar's charting tools include the ability to chart fundamental/financial data such as earnings per share and return on equity, track between one and 10 stocks and market indexes on one chart, use the "roll over" feature to see daily price data displayed for easy stock comparison and focus on a user-defined time period with just a click.

Morningstar Rating™ for ETFs: The Morningstar Rating, often called the "star rating," is a familiar tool that helps investors compare the risk-adjusted returns of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with other ETFs and similar open-end mutual funds. The rating uses the same methodology as the Morningstar Rating™ for funds. To be eligible for a rating, an ETF must have three years of returns and be based in the United States.

Five New Categories, One New Broad Asset Class: Morningstar has added five new categories and one broad asset class to its proprietary classification system for mutual funds. Morningstar added the new categories to help investors find funds that use distinct investing strategies and provide better peer group comparisons among funds in each category. The five new categories are: Long-Short, Inflation-Protected Bond, Target-Date 2000-2014, Target-Date 2015-2029, and Target-Date 2030+. Morningstar is also adding a "Balanced" broad asset class to its current set of four broad asset classes: U.S. Stock, International Stock, Taxable Bond, and Municipal Bond. Broad asset classes are used to help investors narrow a search for funds.

About Morningstar, Inc.
Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in the United States and in major international markets. The company offers an extensive line of Internet, software, and print-based products and services for individuals, financial advisors, and institutions. Morningstar tracks more than 100,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles. The company has operations in 16 countries.

No comments: