Morningstar is drawing back the curtains to give a behind-the-scenes view of when they change their new analyst ratings. Dan Culloton, Morningstar's associate director of fund analysis, has a piece today looking at five instances when the research firm revised their analyst ratings to reflect changes at a fund.

Morningstar's analyst ratings look at fund management, strategies, fees, and risk/reward profile to assign one of five ratings, from "gold" down to "negative." From a PM's point of view, these ratings can be maddeningly subjective -- but they're not necessarily permanent, as Culloton shows.

Culloton explains why the firm recently downgraded Vanguard's [profile] International Explorer fund, and details why the ratings agency is concerned about seeming conflicts of interest in Dan Rice's holdings in the BlackRock Energy and Resourcesprofile] fund, which he managed until last week.

Go to the full article to read about several more funds that have left Morningstar analysts stroking their chins. 

Edited by: Chris Cumming


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