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Morningstar Direct Reviews & Product Details

Verified User in Financial Services
UF
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Morningstar Direct?

Morningstar Direct provides access to a plethora to asset manager and their funds' datapoints like no other platform. I am always finding new ways to highlight how we differentiate from competitors by leveraging interesting data that is not as comprehensive anywhere else. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Morningstar Direct?

Presentation Studio is very outdated and it is annoying that basic things like changing the size of font cannot be achieved. Similarly, workspace could also be more intuitive to use. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Morningstar Direct solving and how is that benefiting you?

Running competitor analysis fairly quickly and comprehensively once I have set up an appropriate template. Means we can differentiate ourselves and be better prepared for client meetings and hopefully close more deals Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Morningstar Direct Overview

What is Morningstar Direct?

Morningstar Direct can help you research markets, position products, analyze the competition, and share their insights quickly, clearly, and concisely. Direct meets your workflow needs in one place with the following core capabilities: • Portfolio Analysis and Construction • Portfolio Marketing • Due Diligence and Competitive Analysis • Investment Analysis and Selection • Asset Allocation Learn more in the product description below.

Morningstar Direct Details
Product Website
Languages Supported
German, English, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional)
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Product Description

Portfolio Management: Morningstar Direct Lens lets you create, edit, and analyze portfolios quickly and efficiently using a clear, intuitive interface. Portfolio Marketing: Tell your stories using Morningstar data and analytics to distill complex investment information into clear, custom-branded reports, product-comparisons, and presentations. Due Diligence: See how you’re doing, how others match up, and which investments are best in class with the Performance Reporting module. It offers streamlined, automated due diligence and easy-to-read reports, so you never lose track of your place in the world.  Data and Research: See the markets through thousands of different lenses, including exclusive Morningstar datapoints such as Analyst ratings, fund flow data, and firm diversity data to find investments that fuel your strategies.   And More: From asset allocation and investment selection, to advanced analytics and pre-built data sets, Direct is the industry standard.

How do you position yourself against your competitors?

Direct is everything that makes Morningstar special: data and research, ratings, analytics, design, and a mission of empowering investor success.


Seller Details
Company Website
Year Founded
1984
HQ Location
Chicago, IL
Twitter
@MorningstarInc
229,485 Twitter followers
LinkedIn® Page
www.linkedin.com
11,697 employees on LinkedIn®
Ownership
MORN
Total Revenue (USD mm)
$798
Description

Portfolio Management: Morningstar lets you create, edit, and analyze portfolios quickly and efficiently using a clear, intuitive interface.

Portfolio Marketing: Tell your stories using Morningstar data and analytics to distill complex investment information into clear, custom-branded reports, product-comparisons, and presentations.

Due Diligence: See how you’re doing, how others match up, and which investments are best in class. Create streamlined, automated, and easy-to-read performance reports, so you never lose track of your place in the world.

Data and Research: See the markets through thousands of different lenses, including exclusive Morningstar datapoints such as Analyst ratings, fund flow data, and firm diversity data to find investments that fuel your strategies.  

And More: From asset allocation and investment selection to advanced analytics and pre-built data sets, Direct is the industry standard.


MJ
Overview Provided by:

Recent Morningstar Direct Reviews

Verified User
U
Verified UserMid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
4.5 out of 5
"Investment Research Associate"
The ability to access a large amount as well as the analytics capabilities
Verified User
E
Verified UserMid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
3.5 out of 5
"Much improved product but technical support very dependent on who is looking after you"
The features for style analysis have improved over the years, also Presentation Studio
Verified User
U
Verified UserEnterprise (> 1000 emp.)
4.0 out of 5
"Morningstar is a really useful tool for quickly comparing investment instrument like for like"
Fundctions such a the presentation studio are are really useful way of visualising continuous data in a way that is different to staring at a sprea...
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Morningstar Direct Media

Morningstar Direct Demo - Morningstar Direct
A global investment analysis platform that unites Morningstar's data, investment research and analytics, data science capabilities and productivity tools designed to streamline your processes.
Morningstar Direct Demo - Morningstar Direct Blog
The Direct Blog gives clients access to articles that show and tell how to perform research tasks using Direct. The Direct Blog is an interactive and resource-rich feature that gives users access to content and analytics from Morningstar's manager research team that they can use to replicate thi...
Morningstar Direct Demo - Portfolio Analysis
See the information that’s most important to you at a glance. Examine a portfolio’s underlying holdings for aspects risk and exposure with Morningstar Direct's risk model to help anticipate what’s coming, so your plans can stay on track. Stress test your portfolios across market and macroeconomic...
Morningstar Direct Demo - Due Diligence
Every explorer needs a compass, and Morningstar Direct’s performance reporting lets you see how you’re doing, how others match up, and which investments are best in class. You can quickly and easily use qualitative and quantitative factors to assign benchmarks, define data, and perform ranking an...
Morningstar Direct Demo - Asset Flows +  Asset Flows Forecsasting
If you don’t know where you are, you can’t plan where you’re going. Asset flows enables you to stay current with market trends by providing a comprehensive and timely picture of the total net assets and estimated net flows across multiple geographical markets as well as organic growth rates for s...
Play Morningstar Direct Video
Performance Reporting lets you define benchmarks, define data, and perform ranking analysis for any report.
Play Morningstar Direct Video
Performance Reporting lets you define benchmarks, define data, and perform ranking analysis for any report.
Presentation Studio lets you turn complex investment information into clear, easy-to-read product comparisons, presentations, and custom-branded reports.
Play Morningstar Direct Video
Presentation Studio lets you turn complex investment information into clear, easy-to-read product comparisons, presentations, and custom-branded reports.
Analytics Lab is a flexible coding environment that lets you investigate Morningstar data more deeply than ever to discover new opportunities for investing success.
Play Morningstar Direct Video
Analytics Lab is a flexible coding environment that lets you investigate Morningstar data more deeply than ever to discover new opportunities for investing success.
Morningstar Reporting Solutions allow you to build custom reports yourself or outsource the process to us.
Play Morningstar Direct Video
Morningstar Reporting Solutions allow you to build custom reports yourself or outsource the process to us.

Official Downloads

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206 out of 207 Total Reviews for Morningstar Direct

4.1 out of 5
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Morningstar Direct Pros and Cons

How are these determined?Information
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Pros
Cons

Overall Review Sentiment for Morningstar DirectQuestion

Time to Implement
<1 day
>12 months
Return on Investment
<6 months
48+ months
Ease of Setup
0 (Difficult)
10 (Easy)
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G2 reviews are authentic and verified.
BR
Business Analyst
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Morningstar Direct?

The amount of investment information that is available and the ability to make it visual and easy to understand. There is so much information avaliable. I can get the answer to any investment information I require within a few mins, even including competitor funds and potential clients. Presentation studio is the best for helping to understand the data I need. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Morningstar Direct?

As a new user it can be a bit confusing trying to understand where to go for the information I need. Using the learning center can be overwhelming and it isn't easy to navigate. I am still very positive about the overall experience so far Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Morningstar Direct solving and how is that benefiting you?

It is helping us to easily and quickly compare our funds to our competitors'. We have the ability to quickly look at what is going on and how to pivot. Using ownership analysis we can see some client opportunities we would not ordinarily have the ability to see Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

SB
Associate Investment Performance Analyst
Enterprise(> 1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Morningstar Direct?

The speed in extracting/pulling the report is very quick compare to other applications, user friendly and the best thing is we use M* excel addins and it's very useful.

Daily I use I use performance reporting, portfolio management, workspace and presentation studio on M* which are very useful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Morningstar Direct?

When it comes to few Indices/benchmarks it will take few days in updating it's data correctly,

Next one is M* support, most of the requests/queries will resolve as quick as possible but for few they will take more time in resolving the issue,

overall it's very nice to use the application. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Morningstar Direct solving and how is that benefiting you?

M* is helping me in getting the accurate data äs per the client's or stakeholder's requests, I'm using this from past 18 months so I'm used to application like which data points to select and other data as well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Kiran S.
KS
Vice President - Products & Research
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Morningstar Direct?

Support given by Morningstar Direct is very focused and even a request to their back-end development team given a few months back is sure to be completed. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Morningstar Direct?

There are a few things like "Company Level Total Asset" which gives AMC-wise fund size is currently only for open-ended funds and excludes close-ended funds and ETFs. Again it only considers Quarterly AUM data and the Monthly figures are simply not available. Hope to get such queries solved with the help of the customer support team. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Morningstar Direct solving and how is that benefiting you?

We required a Factor Profile Chart on equity mutual fund portfolio-level. The earlier component used to work on individual scheme. Now we are able to show whether the portfolio is bent towards Growth/Value, Momentum, Quality, Volatility, Liquidity, Yield and Size - All in one simple chart which is easy to understand and compare. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

AG
Associate Portfolio Manager
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Morningstar Direct?

I like the summary pages for various products. They provide great information. I also like the new Direct Lens tool and some of the analytics capabilities that have been made available. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Morningstar Direct?

The tech side can be frustrating. Direct asks you to log in constantly, even when you just logged in an hour or two ago. I also have been passed around to a handful of relationship managers in just over a year of being a user. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Morningstar Direct solving and how is that benefiting you?

It helps us construct custom client portfolios very well, conduct proper due diligence on investments, and get access to financial markets data. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

TA
Team Lead - Market Intelligence
Enterprise(> 1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Morningstar Direct?

I like the automated batch reports which help me send across timely data with no manual intervention. Also helps me create customized templates in presentation studio for reporting purposes. The Morningstar Direct support is one the best i've seen with swift solution to all issues. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Morningstar Direct?

The data access from individual index providers in my view is a bit costly and something as a bundle with lesser cost could be arranged. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Morningstar Direct solving and how is that benefiting you?

Helps in doing competitor analysis with relevant peers within Morningstar categories. Also helps in tracking asset flows within various asset classes and geographies. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Kallie C.
KC
Manager Research Analyst
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
More Options
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Morningstar Direct?

MD has a broad range of different modules and features that can facilitate various types of analyses, insights and presentations. Where the program doesn't have a particular function, the vast amount of investment-specific data available through numerous mediums like email reports or a Python API connection, among others, makes it very helpful to source data to support further insights.

We use MD on a daily basis and it's output gets further integrated into bespoke tools. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Morningstar Direct?

The program's look and feel is somewhat dated and one tends to find some quirky niggles here and there, like slow load times or lack of a simple 'undo' functions within the report-builder (Presentation Studio) function. Another area that tends to come up short is the platform's level of detail on Fixed Income securities. Where the Equity database and categorisation is quite impressive and notably useful, the Fixed Income details tend to be sparse and could limit the usefulness when trying to analyse these exposures within Multi-Asset or Bond/Cash strategies. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Morningstar Direct solving and how is that benefiting you?

MD's most useful aspect is its vast database on investment solutions available in various markets. This makes it easy to scan, consider and analyse broad peer groups of different offerings to weigh up the best options available. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Aanya Gandhi of Morningstar Direct

Thank you for your detailed feedback on Morningstar Direct. We're glad to hear that you find the program's range of modules and features helpful for your daily analyses and presentations. We appreciate your input and will make sure your insights will be shared with our product development team for further consideration.

Verified User in Financial Services
UF
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Morningstar Direct?

The portofolio creation is great pretty simple to use, I am able to just copy and paste ISINs from a list and weightings to keep track of portoflios, creating different dates and things like that are quite simple.

With this you are then able to get a unique code that can be used to pull the data into excel to be used for other scenarios. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Morningstar Direct?

Some of the resources to know how to use Morningstar arent the greatest - especially for the excel-add in it takes a lot of time to figure out how to use the formula's correctly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Morningstar Direct solving and how is that benefiting you?

Keeping track of portfolio performance as well as due diligence for investments - the creation of portoflios is quite simple to do and easier than another product used previously where it was very fiddly and manual to update.

As well as researching investments where you can filter down specific criteria is very useful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Investment Management
UI
Enterprise(> 1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Morningstar Direct?

- Ease of use

- Amount of options of charts & tables within presentation studio

- Level of comparison achieved

- Number of funds on the platform

- Up to date information

- Detailed fund comparison

- Visuallu appealing graphs

- Ability to export to PDF Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Morningstar Direct?

- Takes a while to get used to and understand all of the features

- Sometimes hard to find some funds without ISINs Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Morningstar Direct solving and how is that benefiting you?

We have numerous client quries of them using competitor funds over ours. The use of M* allos us to run detailed comparisons to go to the client with to show them why they should change to our funds. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Investment Management
UI
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Morningstar Direct?

Morningstar is an all-in-one stop for fund analysis. It has all of the data you need and gets used all day every day.

The depth of data available is vast, and if there ever is an issue, the customer service team are usually excellent and promptly resolving issues. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Morningstar Direct?

Fixed Income mutual funds are generally more difficult to analyse using this software, some data is missing or just not accurate - I believe this is more due to the nature of the feed from the funds however. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Morningstar Direct solving and how is that benefiting you?

I utilise Morningstar Direct for fund research, and it covers just about all of the data requirements I have. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Investment Management
AI
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Morningstar Direct?

Lots of relevant data available. We use it almost every day. Great report templates that are modifiable. Customization features are pretty easy to use. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Morningstar Direct?

Customer service used to be better. Posting of data used to be quicker. I think they have spread themselves too thin trying to be all things to all customers. When something does not post or work properly you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it fixed. Each module seems to operate seperately rather than being an integrated solution Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Morningstar Direct solving and how is that benefiting you?

Easy access and manipulation of data for production of key metrics used in marketing materials. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.