Morningstar Bows Muni Research

Chicago-based investment research and data provider Morningstar has begun producing analyst research on 100 municipal issuing bodies-initially including states, local governments, and utilities and enterprise-like bodies such as water, sewer and power authorities, airports, and higher education bodies-covering around a million muni bonds.

Analysts assess each obligor on economic stability, financial condition, debt and long-term liabilities, and management and operating environment, then assess scores of good, fair or poor.

The vendor produces bond reports that include economic and demographic information about each issuer, pricing analytics and bond-level data, which is updated daily as new information becomes available, and is delivered via an additional module in Morningstar's Analyst Research Center research platform and its Morningstar Advisor Workstation.