On October 28, 2026, Morningstar, Inc. reported its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2026. The company announced that reported revenue increased 8.9% to $672.1 million compared to the prior-year period, with organic revenue increasing 6.8%. Adjusted operating income rose 26.1% to $189.9 million, and adjusted diluted net income per share increased 36.5% to $3.48.
Operating expenses increased 3.0% to $504.7 million, driven largely by technology infrastructure costs related to cloud migration and AI initiatives, as well as advertising and marketing expenses. These increases were partially offset by a decline in compensation costs. Morningstar Credit and the Morningstar Direct Platform were the primary contributors to organic revenue growth. The acquisition of CRSP was noted as accretive to adjusted operating margin.
In terms of capital allocation, the company repurchased 486,573 shares for $100.0 million during the quarter. As of September 30, 2026, Morningstar had cash, cash equivalents, and investments totaling $524.6 million and $1.7 billion of debt. The company also paid $18.7 million in dividends during the quarter.
CEO Kunal Kapoor highlighted the launch of Direct AI, featuring agentic workflows backed by the company’s data, and noted strong adoption across Model Context Protocol (MCP) offerings, with cumulative tool calls through the PitchBook Data Premium Connector surpassing 13 million in October.
