Analysts Set Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) PT at $21.42

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the six ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $21.42.

A number of research firms have issued reports on MSDL. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 26th. UBS Group downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $23.50 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 29th.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Performance

NYSE MSDL opened at $20.02 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $19.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.79 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.74. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 1 year low of $19.05 and a 1 year high of $24.18.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a return on equity of 12.57% and a net margin of 60.60%. The firm had revenue of $104.19 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $101.60 million. As a group, research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a — dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a yield of 10.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s payout ratio is 67.34%.

Institutional Trading of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MSDL. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 16.3% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,780,243 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,898,000 after acquiring an additional 250,167 shares during the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 64.8% in the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 1st quarter valued at $646,000. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter worth $223,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter worth $223,000.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Company Profile

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.