Analysts Set Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Price Target at $21.92

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the six brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $21.92.

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

Institutional Trading of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MSDL. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter valued at $223,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter valued at $223,000. Cliffwater LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter valued at $47,035,000. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter valued at $646,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter valued at $32,973,000.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Performance

MSDL opened at $21.85 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $22.94. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a twelve month low of $19.05 and a twelve month 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. The firm has a market cap of $1.95 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.05.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.63. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a return on equity of 12.87% and a net margin of 62.34%. The firm had revenue of $99.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $98.65 million. As a group, analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Announces Dividend

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