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

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the six analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $21.42.

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 29th. UBS Group cut shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $23.50 target price for the company. in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Raymond James lowered Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 13th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 1st quarter worth about $223,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter worth approximately $223,000. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter worth approximately $646,000. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 64.8% during the second quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 30,713 shares of the company’s stock valued at $671,000 after purchasing an additional 12,076 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $32,973,000.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Performance

Shares of MSDL stock opened at $20.70 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.85 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 1 year low of $19.05 and a 1 year high of $24.18. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $20.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $21.89.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.63. The company had revenue of $104.19 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $101.60 million. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a return on equity of 12.87% and a net margin of 62.34%. Analysts predict that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a — dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This represents a dividend yield of 10.1%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s payout ratio is currently 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.