Morningstar Acquires Inquiry Stake to Boost Consensus Estimates Content

Chicago-based data and investment research provider Morningstar has bought 34 percent of Swedish consensus estimates vendor Inquiry Financial, for an undisclosed sum, to expand its estimates content with more granular data.

Kunal Kapoor, president of Morningstar's data division, says the stake in Inquiry -- which extracts detailed data points such as division-level sales forecasts and shipping figures from analyst research, to provide detailed estimates for individual companies -- will enable Morningstar to "expand both the depth and breadth of our global earnings estimate data coverage."

Morningstar plans to make Inquiry's data available via its products, including Morningstar.com, Morningstar Direct and Morningstar Data.

Stefan Hultin chief executive and co-founder of Bromma, Sweden-based Inquiry, says the deal will help the vendor broaden its presence among money managers and buy-side analysts, where Morningstar already has strong relationships.