Intro to notifications

Key components

There are three main elements to each notification:

• A headline, which notifies you of a change or event.
• Supporting information (chart preview, personal exposure indicator, ratings summary, and more), which gives you more context around that change.
• A link to either a company report or quote page, which gives the full picture of a security, including comprehensive analysis from our analysts, when available.

How to view notifications in your feed

• Notifications will populate your feed if you're signed in to Morningstar Investor, and you've set up at least one portfolio and/or watchlist.
• Select the bell icon in the upper right-hand corner of Morningstar.com to access your personalized feed.
• Notifications will be displayed in your feed in reverse chronological order. Whenever there is an update related to your portfolios, watchlists, or target prices, it will appear at the top of the feed.
• A note for former Premium members with watchlists in legacy Portfolio Manager: Currently, notifications are only available for watchlists created in Investor. You can convert a watchlist from legacy Portfolio Manager to a portfolio, which will allow you to receive notifications on those securities.

How to receive email notifications

• Follow these instructions to learn how to opt in to (or out of) emailed notifications of updates to securities within your portfolios and/or watchlists.

Available notifications

The ratings, research, and updates listed below are included in Morningstar Investor notifications. Definitions follow to show you how these updates could help you make buy or sell decisions or determine future tax implications.

Stocks

• Morningstar Rating for stocks
• Morningstar Fair Value Estimate
• Morningstar Economic Moat Rating
• Earnings releases
• Company reports and Stock Analyst Notes
• Capital Allocation Rating*
• Dividend payment*

Funds

• Medalist Rating for funds
• Morningstar Rating for funds*
• Fund distributions*

*New as of Q4 2025

Morningstar Rating for stocks

• The Morningstar Rating for stocks can help investors uncover stocks that are truly undervalued, cutting through the market noise. The rating is determined by three factors: a stock's current price, Morningstar's estimate of the stock's fair value, and the uncertainty rating of the fair value.
• A stock’s star rating identifies stocks trading at a discount or premium to our estimate of their fair values. Generally speaking, stocks trading at large discounts to our analysts' fair value estimates (market price lower than FV) will receive higher (4 or 5) star ratings, and stocks trading at large premiums to their fair value estimates (market price higher than FV) will receive lower (1 or 2) star ratings. Stocks that are trading very close to our analysts' fair value estimates will receive 3-star ratings.

Morningstar Fair Value Estimate

• The Morningstar Fair Value Estimate tells investors what the long-term intrinsic value of a stock is, helping them see beyond the present market price. Morningstar calculates the fair value estimate of a company based on how much cash we think the company will generate in the future.

Morningstar Economic Moat Rating

• The Morningstar Economic Moat Rating represents a company’s durable competitive advantage. A company with an economic moat can fend off competition and earn high returns on capital for many years to come.

Earnings releases

• Earnings are an important figure in a company’s financial statements. They represent a company’s financial performance and allow analysts to compare performance between similar organizations. Earnings are also a strong indicator of stock performance, as they can be reinvested back into the business or paid to shareholders as dividends. They're calculated on a quarterly and annual basis through statistics like earnings per share, or EPS, and P/E ratio.
• You’ll be notified about both upcoming earnings events and when earnings have been made public.

Company reports and Stock Analyst Notes

• Each company report begins with essential stats from the company's corresponding stock quote page. It's followed by recent Stock Analyst Notes, if available.

Capital Allocation Rating*

• The Capital Allocation Rating represents Morningstar's assessment of the quality of a company's capital allocation, or how well its leadership team uses cash. Analysts assign one of three ratings––Exemplary, Standard, or Poor––and judge capital allocation from an equity holder's perspective.
• Analysts consider a company's investment strategy and valuation, balance-sheet management, and dividend and share buyback policies. Corporate governance factors are considered only if they are likely to materially affect shareholder value, through either balance-sheet, investment, of shareholder distributions.
• Ratings of Exemplary, Standard, or Poor are determined on a forward-looking and absolute basis. The Standard rating is most common, as most managers will exhibit neither exceptionally strong or poor capital allocation.

Stock dividend payments*

• You'll be notified with updates for both stocks and funds when an upcoming dividend distribution is about to occur. Updates include the distribution amount, date, dividends per share, and dividend yield.

Medalist Rating

• The Medalist Rating for funds is a forward-looking system that aims to predict funds’ performance versus a relevant benchmark index or peer group. It takes the form of Gold, Silver, Bronze, Neutral, and Negative, with higher ratings denoting our conviction in a fund’s ability to outperform and lower ratings indicating a lack of conviction.

Morningstar Rating for funds*

• The Morningstar Rating for funds, often referred to as the Star Rating, measures a fund’s past performance compared to similar funds on a risk-adjusted basis. It combines performance, risk, and load adjustments into a single evaluation. The fund's risk-adjusted and load-adjusted return is plotted on a bell curve for a given time period (three, five, or 10 years).
• If a fund scores in the top 10% of its category, it receives 5 stars; the next 22.5% receive 4 stars; the next 35% receive 3 stars; the next 22.5% receive 2 stars; and the remaining 10% receive 1 star. The overall star rating is a weighted average of the available star ratings. The star rating is updated on a monthly basis, and a fund must have 36 calendar months of performance before a star rating is assigned.

Fund Distributions*

• You'll be notified with updates when an upcoming fund dividend distribution is about to occur. Dividend distribution updates include the distribution amount, date, dividends per share, and dividend yield, and Capital Gains updates include the distribution amount, date, and short-term and long-term gains.

*New as of Q4 2025