NEW YORK and CHICAGO, Jan. 11, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ), the world's largest exchange company, is expanding its previously announced agreement with Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq:MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, to provide comprehensive analyst research reports on NASDAQ-listed companies. In June 2009, NASDAQ OMX and Morningstar entered into an exclusive agreement for Morningstar to provide basic equity research profile reports on all NASDAQ-listed companies.
Now, qualified companies have the option to contract with NASDAQ OMX for a full Morningstar analyst research report. Some of the companies that have contracted with NASDAQ OMX for a full research report thus far include: Famous Dave's of America (Nasdaq:DAVE), Athersys (Nasdaq:ATHX), Integrated Silicon Solution (Nasdaq:ISSI), Life Partners Holdings (Nasdaq:LPHI), PLX Technology (Nasdaq:PLXT), Synalloy Corporation (Nasdaq:SYNL), QCR Holdings (Nasdaq:QCRH), TOP Ships (Nasdaq:TOPS), IRIDEX (Nasdaq:IRIX), and DRI Corporation (Nasdaq:TBUS).
"For the past six months we've been providing our listed companies with basic profile reports from Morningstar, and we've received a great response. The profile reports have helped fill a void for under-covered companies. Based on customer demand and industry dynamics, we want to offer full Morningstar analyst research reports," said Bruce Aust, executive vice president of NASDAQ OMX. "This second phase of our collaboration with Morningstar reinforces our ongoing commitment to providing investors and issuers with transparency, valuable services and access to important market information."
"Many companies, particularly small- and mid-cap firms, have seen their research coverage shrink or disappear altogether. This information gap makes it challenging for investors to conduct timely due diligence," said Catherine Odelbo, president of equity research for Morningstar, Inc. "NASDAQ OMX selected Morningstar because of our analyst expertise and our track record of providing objective, credible, and comprehensive research across industry groups. By working with NASDAQ OMX, we can fulfill our mission of helping investors and NASDAQ OMX can broaden its offerings and fill a need in the market for research on under-covered companies."
"Solid independent research is critical to a company's ability to attract and retain investors, improve liquidity in trading, and lower a company's cost of capital," said Diana Purcel, chief financial officer of Famous Dave's of America. "We believe that NASDAQ's innovative approach in offering Morningstar research will help accomplish these goals."
NASDAQ OMX began offering Morningstar's basic profile reports at no cost to the issuer in the third quarter of 2009 for both NASDAQ- and Nordic-listed companies. The profile report includes a lengthy company profile, comprehensive data about the company and its industry, and industry context written by a Morningstar analyst. As part of the expanded service offered by NASDAQ OMX, companies may contract with NASDAQ OMX for Morningstar's institutional analyst research report. NASDAQ will serve as the intermediary and will pay Morningstar a fee for the service. The service will include a comprehensive initiation report and a minimum of three quarterly updates. Morningstar's institutional equity analyst reports provide thorough qualitative and quantitative analysis, including an investment thesis and discussions about valuation, management, risks, and competitive advantage. It also includes the Morningstar Rating(TM) for Stocks, a Fair Value Estimate, Consider Buying and Consider Selling prices, Uncertainty Rating, Economic Moat(TM) Rating, and full pro-forma analyst forecasts.
Issuers may not review the content of Morningstar's analyst research or ratings prior to publication. The reports will include disclosure noting that the listed company has commissioned the exchange for the research.
Morningstar's full analyst reports will be available on Morningstar.com; Morningstar Advisor Workstation, its Web-based investment research platform for financial advisors; Morningstar Direct, its Web-based investment research platform for institutions; Nasdaq.com; and NASDAQ OMX's Web site, Nasdaq Online. An institutional version of the report will be available to institutional investors through Morningstar's Select Equity Research service and selected third-party research portals.
About NASDAQ OMX Corporate Services
NASDAQ-listed companies have access to innovative products and services through a group of wholly owned subsidiaries including Shareholder.com, GlobeNewswire Service and Pinpoint Market Intelligence. These services help NASDAQ-listed companies by facilitating transparency, mitigating risk and inspiring better corporate governance. The NASDAQ Market Intelligence Desk(R) gives senior executives an immediate, integrated and insightful source of real-time market information customized to their companies and needs.
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 Internet, software, and print-based products and services for individuals, financial advisors, and institutions. Morningstar provides data on more than 325,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 4 million equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets. The company has operations in 20 countries and minority ownership positions in companies based in two other countries. Morningstar has more than 80 analysts who cover about 1,800 companies across 91 industry groups.
About NASDAQ OMX
The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. is the world's largest exchange company. It delivers trading, exchange technology and public company services across six continents, with over 3,800 listed companies. NASDAQ OMX offers multiple capital raising solutions to companies around the globe, including its U.S. listings market, NASDAQ OMX Nordic, NASDAQ OMX Baltic, NASDAQ OMX First North, and the U.S. 144A sector. The company offers trading across multiple asset classes including equities, derivatives, debt, commodities, structured products and exchange-traded funds. NASDAQ OMX technology supports the operations of over 70 exchanges, clearing organizations and central securities depositories in more than 50 countries. NASDAQ OMX Nordic and NASDAQ OMX Baltic are not legal entities but describe the common offering from NASDAQ OMX exchanges in Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Iceland, Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius. For more information about NASDAQ OMX, visit http://www.nasdaqomx.com.
NASDAQ OMX's Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
The matters described herein contain forward-looking statements that are made under the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements about NASDAQ OMX's products and offerings. We caution that these statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or other factors beyond NASDAQ OMX's control. These factors include, but are not limited to factors detailed in NASDAQ OMX's annual report on Form 10-K, and periodic reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to release any revisions to any forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that the FSA will give the NASDAQ OMX applicant the authorization and permissions which it seeks.
Morningstar's 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 "may," "could," "expect," "intend," "plan," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," or "continue." These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the events we discussed not to occur or to differ significantly from what we expected. For us, these risks and uncertainties include, among others, general industry conditions and competition, including the global financial crisis that began in 2007; the impact of market volatility on revenue from asset-based fees; damage to our reputation resulting from claims made about possible conflicts of interest; liability for any losses that result from an actual or claimed breach of our fiduciary duties; financial services industry consolidation; a prolonged outage of our database and network facilities; challenges faced by our non-U.S. operations; and the availability of free or low-cost investment information. A more complete description of these risks and uncertainties can be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008. If any of these risks and uncertainties materialize, our actual future results may vary significantly from what we expected. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events.
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