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

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $21.42.

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered 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. Finally, UBS Group cut shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $23.50 target price on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, July 18th.

Institutional Trading of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Cliffwater LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 1st quarter valued at $47,035,000. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 16.3% in the 2nd 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 increased its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 12,076 shares during the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 1st quarter valued at $646,000. Finally, Everpar Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 3rd quarter worth about $377,000.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Price Performance

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending stock opened at $20.09 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.01. The stock has a market cap of $1.80 billion and a PE ratio of 6.48. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 1-year low of $19.05 and a 1-year high of $24.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.63. The business had revenue of $104.19 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $101.60 million. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a net margin of 60.60% and a return on equity of 12.57%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.54 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Cuts Dividend

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