Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Short Interest Update

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 47,500 shares, a drop of 21.0% from the August 31st total of 60,100 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 187,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.3 days. Currently, 0.1% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MSDL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered 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, UBS Group downgraded 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. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $21.42.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cliffwater LLC acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter valued at approximately $47,035,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 16.3% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,780,243 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,898,000 after buying an additional 250,167 shares during the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 12,076 shares during the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter worth $646,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter worth $223,000.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Trading Up 0.7 %

MSDL stock traded up $0.14 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $20.02. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 131,700 shares, compared to its average volume of 136,985. The company has a market cap of $1.79 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.46. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $20.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $21.04. 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 12 month low of $19.05 and a 12 month 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, hitting 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 business had revenue of $104.19 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $101.60 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.54 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a — dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a yield of 10.1%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.52%.

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.