Morningstar Direct is designed for asset managers, consultants, insurance companies, investor relations professionals, and retirement plan sponsors. The most significant additions to Morningstar Direct are a U.S. stock database, a global stock ownership database, hedge fund firm portfolio information, and an expanded European mutual fund database.

Morningstar Direct 3.0 users will have access to analyst reports and statistics on more than 7,000 U.S. stocks and American Depository Receipts (ADRs). Specifically, the data now includes daily trailing returns, valuation information, financial statements, and Morningstar proprietary information such as economic moat ratings, consider buy/sell recommendations, and the Morningstar Rating for stocks. Also now available is a stock ownership database with global ownership coverage derived from the Morningstar portfolio holdings database and institutional portfolio filings (13-Fs). Users will not only be able to determine who owns a given stock, but also who is buying or selling that stock. Additionally, the company has almost doubled the size of its European and offshore mutual fund coverage with approximately 20,000 new funds.

To enhance hedge fund research, equity holdings for approximately 600 of the largest hedge fund firms have been added to the latest version of Morningstar Direct. Company-wide equity holdings compiled from 13-F filings allow insight into the investment strategies of many of the most prominent hedge fund firms. And, as previously announced, Morningstar Direct now includes hedge fund research reports written by Morningstar's new hedge fund analysts.

"Our goal with Morningstar Direct is to create a comprehensive investment research platform," said Joe Mansueto, chairman and CEO of Morningstar. "The addition of securities data, expanded European mutual fund statistics, and hedge fund research reports rounds out our offering to include all major investment categories."

Other enhancements include news feeds from Morningstar.com, Dow Jones, and PR Newswire and a library of pre-formatted graphs and data tables that users can incorporate into their investment fact sheets.