CHICAGO, April 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today announced the nominees for the 2019 Morningstar Awards for Investing Excellence. The awards recognize portfolio managers, asset management firms, and up-and-coming managers who demonstrate excellent investment skill, the courage to differ from the consensus to benefit investors, and an alignment of interests with the strategies' investors.

Morningstar selects nominees in three categories: Outstanding Portfolio Manager, Exemplary Stewardship and Rising Talent. The nominees for the 2019 Morningstar Awards for Investing Excellence in the United States are:

Outstanding Portfolio Manager:

• Brian Berghuis; T. Rowe Price Mid-Cap Growth (RPMGX)
• Jerome Clark; T. Rowe Price Retirement Series
• Dan Fuss; Loomis Sayles Bond (LSBDX)
• Mary Ellen Stanek; Baird Aggregate Bond (BAGIX)
• Joel Tillinghast; Fidelity Low-Priced Stock (FLPSX)

Exemplary Stewardship:

• Capital Group (American Funds)
• Dodge & Cox
• Fiduciary Management, Inc. (FMI)
• T. Rowe Price
• The Vanguard Group

Rising Talent:

• Pramod Atluri; American Funds Bond Fund of America (ABNDX)
• James Marchetti; PRIMECAP Odyssey Aggressive Growth (POAGX)
• Vincent Montemaggiore; Fidelity Overseas (FOSFX)
• Brett Sumsion; Fidelity Freedom Target-Date Fund Series

"We're pleased to present this year's nominees for the Morningstar Awards for Investing Excellence," said Laura Pavlenko Lutton, Morningstar's director of manager research, North America. "Our Outstanding Portfolio Manager nominees have distinguished themselves over the long haul by delivering excellent returns to their investors, while the nominees for the Rising Talent award include portfolio managers who have excelled over shorter tenures and shown great future promise. The firms nominated for Exemplary Stewardship have consistently put client interests before their own, yielding better results for shareholders."

Morningstar will announce the award winners on May 9, 2019 on CNBC's "Power Lunch" program, broadcast live from the annual Morningstar Investment Conference. Highlights about the Outstanding Portfolio Manager award nominees are available here, and the nominees for remaining categories will be featured on Morningstar.com in the next two weeks. Live updates from the award announcement on May 9 will be available on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MorningstarInc or through the event hashtag, #MstarAwards.

Morningstar has granted annual awards to accomplished portfolio managers since 1988. The Morningstar Awards for Investing Excellence winners are chosen based on research and in-depth qualitative evaluation by Morningstar's manager research group. For more information about Morningstar Awards, visit https://go.morningstar.com/Morningstar-Awards. A list of current Morningstar Medalists is available here to Morningstar.com Premium members. 

Methodology
To be eligible for the Outstanding Portfolio Manager award, managers must run one or more investment strategies that are under Morningstar manager research analyst coverage and currently earn a Morningstar Analyst Rating™ (Analyst Rating) of Gold or Silver. Exemplary Stewardship nominees must have received a "positive" Parent pillar rating from Morningstar's manager-research analysts, which indicates the firm's stewardship practices exceed the industry standard. Rising Talent award nominees must be managers that run investment strategies that have received an Analyst Rating of Gold, Silver, or Bronze or been featured in Morningstar Prospects, a publication that highlights strategies under consideration for full analyst coverage. To be eligible for the Rising Talent award, nominees must have no more than seven years of public portfolio-management and delivered promising results over that period. The full methodology for the awards is available here.

Morningstar Investment Conference
More information about the Morningstar Investment Conference on May 8-10, 2019 in Chicago, including the full agenda, hotel accommodations, and continuing-education credits, is available here. Full-time members of the news media may receive complimentary registration to the Morningstar Investment Conference. To register, visit http://www.morningstar.com/company/MIC and select registration type as "media."

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 products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, retirement plan providers and sponsors, and institutional investors in the private capital markets. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings, including managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with more than $193 billion in assets under advisement and management as of Dec. 31, 2018. The company has operations in 27 countries. For more information, visit www.morningstar.com/company. Follow Morningstar on Twitter @MorningstarInc.

Morningstar's Manager Research Group consists of various wholly owned subsidiaries of Morningstar, Inc. including, but not limited to, Morningstar Research Services LLC. Analyst Ratings are subjective in nature and should not be used as the sole basis for investment decisions. Analyst Ratings are based on Morningstar's Manager Research Group's current expectations about future events and therefore involve unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause such expectations not to occur or to differ significantly from what was expected. Analyst Ratings are not guarantees nor should they be viewed as an assessment of a fund's or a fund's or separately managed account's underlying securities' creditworthiness. This press release is for informational purposes only; references to securities or a separately managed account investment strategy in this press release should not be considered an offer or solicitation to buy or sell the securities or to invest in accordance with that strategy.

©2019 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Media Contact:
Sarah Wirth, +1 312 244-7358 or [email protected]

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SOURCE Morningstar, Inc.