Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the six research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $21.92.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSDL. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 23rd. Raymond James cut Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $20.50 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Cliffwater LLC acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter worth $47,035,000. Van ECK Associates Corp acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter worth $32,973,000. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter worth $646,000. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter worth $223,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter worth $223,000.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MSDL opened at $21.85 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $1.95 billion and a PE ratio of 7.05. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $22.94. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 52 week low of $19.05 and a 52 week high of $24.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.63. The business had revenue of $99.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $98.65 million. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a return on equity of 12.87% and a net margin of 62.34%. On average, analysts predict that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.52 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 25th. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.15%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s payout ratio is 64.52%.

About Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund is a business development company. It is a non-diversified, externally managed specialty finance company focused on lending to middle-market companies. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund is based in NEW YORK.