Critical Survey: Highest Performances (NASDAQ:HPH) & Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN)

Highest Performances (NASDAQ:HPH) and Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership and dividends.

Volatility and Risk

Highest Performances has a beta of 0.25, suggesting that its share price is 75% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Morningstar has a beta of 1.16, suggesting that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Highest Performances and Morningstar’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Highest Performances	$15.78 million	104.55	-$6.01 million	N/A	N/A
Morningstar	$2.10 billion	6.02	$141.10 million	$4.95	59.77

Morningstar has higher revenue and earnings than Highest Performances.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

57.0% of Morningstar shares are owned by institutional investors. 87.6% of Highest Performances shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 39.9% of Morningstar shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Highest Performances and Morningstar’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Highest Performances	N/A	N/A	N/A
Morningstar	10.13%	21.79%	8.32%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Highest Performances and Morningstar, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Highest Performances	0	0	0	0	N/A
Morningstar	0	0	1	0	3.00

Morningstar has a consensus price target of $320.00, indicating a potential upside of 8.16%. Given Morningstar’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Morningstar is more favorable than Highest Performances.

Summary

Morningstar beats Highest Performances on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Highest Performances

Highest Performances Holdings Inc. engages in the provision of financial technology services in China. The company distributes publicly raised fund and privately raised securities investment fund products through online and offline. It also offers insurance consulting, trust consulting, asset management, wealth management, and other ancillary services. The company was formerly known as Puyi Inc. and changed its name to Highest Performances Holdings Inc. in March 2024. Highest Performances Holdings Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Guangzhou, China.

About Morningstar

Morningstar, Inc. provides independent investment insights in the United States, Asia. Australia, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company operates in five segments: Morningstar Data and Analytics; PitchBook; Morningstar Wealth; Morningstar Credit; and Morningstar Retirement. The company offers managing investments, including mutual funds, ETFs, separate accounts, collective investment trusts, model portfolios, equities, and fixed income securities; Morningstar Direct is an investment-analysis and reporting platform; Morningstar Advisor Workstation, a suite of tool to provide help and advice. The PitchBook segment provides data and research covering the private capital markets comprising venture capital, private equity, private credit and bank loans, and merger and acquisition activities; and pitchbook platform. It provides model portfolios and wealth platforms; Morningstar Managed Portfolios, an advisor service with model portfolios designed for fee-based independent financial advisors; and Morningstar.com that discovers, evaluates, and monitors stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds; build and monitor portfolios and markets. In addition, the company provides credit ratings, research, data, and credit analytics solutions; Morningstar DBRS which offers securitizations and other structured finance instruments, such as asset-backed securities, residential mortgage-backed securities, commercial mortgage-backed securities, and collateralized loan obligations. Further, it offers managed retirement accounts, fiduciary services, Morningstar Lifetime Allocation funds, and custom models; Morningstar Indexes offers market indexes used for performance benchmarks and as the basis for investment products and other portfolio strategies; and Morningstar Sustainalytics provides environmental, social and governance data, research, analysis, and insights. Morningstar, Inc. was incorporated in 1984 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.