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In contrast to your post, I find Morningstar to be incredibly helpful. I am not a financial analyst. Their 5 star rating for stocks (way different for funds) has worked out pretty well for me. My portfolio of 21 individual stocks and 1 mutual fund is up 5.59% since mid-February. This is primarily due to 5 stocks that are way down, but on the flip side I have 12 that are above 10% gains (5 above 20% and 1 at 42%). I picked all of my stocks based off of M*'s research. I don't rely solely on it, but it does help identify some values and gives an estimate of fair value that has seemed pretty accurate to me so far.

I don't want to risk calling it a 'hobby', but I am interested in investing in general, so the $135/year membership fee works out to $11.25/month.

Granted, you can get a lot of the information out on the internet, but having one consolidated place that offers a pretty good analysis of the stock has been awesome for me. They are also more oriented on the value side versus the growth side, which is in line with my investment strategy as well.

Just my 2 cents.

The analyst reports also burden you with an information overload. And it pressurizes your thinking, taking you away from enjoying the process of investing.

I wd think that one should start with looking for the right questions first and then look for answers. Instead of a template based analyst report.

I've been wondering about your bathroom reading habits. Thanks for sharing. :)

I haven't looked at a Morningstar report since they dissuaded me from buying CRXL at 6 a share a few years ago.

Its gone up to like $24 since then.

I definitely agree with KMulligan here. I find various Morningstar tools such as stock/fund screening (more comprehensive than what you can find for free), research tool, and analyst reports very useful and also think it's well worth the subscription fee, even though I was weary of it at first.

I don't rely solely on reports, I actually read them only after I form my own opinion about the company and its financials. Its close to impossible to really scrutinize annual statements in detail, so I'm sure its possible miss important details that Morningstar analysts often pick up on. Obviously, you have to take everything with a grain of salt and not simply buy a stock because Morningstar gave it 4 or 5 stars. They rate almost 2,000 stocks, clearly there will be 4-5 star stocks that you should really pass up on and 2-3 star stocks that may double in the near future. You have to do your own analysis and make your own decisions. Morningstar is simply another tool to make better investment decisions, at least for me it is.

Also, regarding your Warren Buffett quote. He really meant it more towards Wall Street analysts who tell you to sell or buy when their peers do so, and who 70% of the time suggest that you "buy" a stock, not too mention all the conflicts of interests often involved in those brokerages firms that employe such analysts. Morningstar actually takes more of a Warren Buffett-style approach towards valuing companies, which is a major reason why I even use their services.

Thought I'd give a different perspective on the subject :)