Behavioral Alpha Score offers insights into investment decision making

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Chicago — Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment insights, has announced a strategic relationship with Essentia Analytics, a leading provider of behavioral analytics and decision-making insights for investment professionals, to bring Essentia’s Behavioral Alpha Score to the Morningstar Direct Platform.

The Behavioral Alpha Score is a quantitative measure of fund manager decision-making skill that spans seven types of decisions: Picking, Entry Timing, Scaling In, Sizing, Size Adjusting, Scaling Out, and Exit Timing. Essentia’s research demonstrates a link between the Behavioral Alpha Score and predicted future fund performance.

“This strategic relationship with Essentia represents Morningstar’s continued commitment to providing independent, transparent data that empowers investors in today’s ever-evolving market,” said James Rhodes, president of the Direct Platform. “By adding the Behavioral Alpha Score to the Direct Platform, Morningstar aims to provide deeper insights on the true drivers of investment performance, helping investors make more informed decisions.”

“Morningstar has long been a trusted name in the investment community, and their recognition of behavioral analytics as a key advancement in manager research speaks volumes about the industry’s evolution,” said Clare Flynn Levy, CEO of Essentia Analytics. “We’re excited to see our Behavioral Alpha Score reach a broader audience through this relationship, ultimately enabling investors to make more confident decisions about the managers to whom they allocate capital.”

About Essentia Analytics
Essentia Analytics is a leading provider of behavioral analytics and decision-making insights for investment professionals. Its award-winning platform, backed by robust research and over a decade of experience, helps fund managers and fund investors identify and advance decision-making skill, driving better investment performance.

About Morningstar, Inc.

Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment insights in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The Company offers an extensive line of products and solutions that serve a wide range of market participants, including individual and institutional investors in public and private capital markets, financial advisors and wealth managers, asset managers, retirement plan providers and sponsors, and issuers of fixed-income securities. 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 $328 billion in AUMA as of Sept. 30, 2024. The Company operates through wholly owned subsidiaries in 32 countries. For more information, visit www.morningstar.com/company. Follow Morningstar on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MorningstarInc.

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is used in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on our current expectations about future events or future financial performance. Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain, and often contain words such as “consider,” “future,” “maintain,” “may,” “expect,” “potential,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “will,” or the negative thereof, and similar expressions. These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the events we discuss not to occur or to differ significantly from what we expect. For us, these risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the alliance and the expected benefits thereof. A more complete description of these risks and uncertainties can be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including our most recent Reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q. If any of these risks and uncertainties materialize, our actual future results and other future events may vary significantly from what we expect. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. You are, however, advised to review any further disclosures we make on related subjects, and about new or additional risks, uncertainties and assumptions in our filings with the SEC on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K.

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Morningstar Media Contact: Media Hotline, +1 312 696-6027 or [email protected]

Essentia Analytics Media Contact: Doug Dundas, Chief Marketing Officer, +1 (212) 235-7102 or [email protected]