The portal includes research for stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and initial public offerings.
The new module provides access to the credit reports and ratings that Morningstar’s 100 equity and credit analysts generate on approximately 700 global corporate credit issuers.
The information includes Morningstar’s overview on macroeconomic trends in the fixed income market and specific analysis of a company’s creditworthiness, including forward-looking risk measures based on Morningstar analysts’ five-year cash flow projections.
When assessing a specific bond, Morningstar looks at four key metrics: business risk, cash flow, solvency and distance to default.
Morningstar also provides analysis on outstanding bonds, with commentaries on which the analysts believe are attractive and which they believe should be avoided. The research firm also calls attention to recent changes in its ratings, share repurchases, mergers and acquisitions and spinoffs.
“More and more investors are asking their financial advisers for information about fixed income investments, and now Morningstar provides independent analysis of a corporate bond or issuer’s creditworthiness,” said Haywood Kelly, senior vice president of securities research at Morningstar.
