Head-To-Head Contrast: Inspirato (NASDAQ:ISPO) versus Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL)

Inspirato (NASDAQ:ISPO) and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Inspirato and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Inspirato	0	1	1	0	2.50
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	0	5	1	0	2.17

Inspirato currently has a consensus price target of $10.50, indicating a potential upside of 157.04%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a consensus price target of $21.42, indicating a potential upside of 6.39%. Given Inspirato’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Inspirato is more favorable than Morgan Stanley Direct Lending.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

39.5% of Inspirato shares are owned by institutional investors. 34.2% of Inspirato shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Inspirato and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Inspirato	$329.10 million	0.08	-$51.76 million	($14.56)	-0.28
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	$275.66 million	6.53	$231.01 million	$3.10	6.49

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Inspirato. Inspirato is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Morgan Stanley Direct Lending, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Inspirato and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Inspirato	-10.93%	N/A	-13.20%
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	60.60%	12.57%	6.36%

Summary

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending beats Inspirato on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Inspirato

Inspirato Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a subscription-based luxury travel company. The company's portfolio includes luxury vacation homes, and accommodations at luxury hotels and resorts, as well as luxury safaris, cruises, custom-designed itineraries, and other experiences. It is involved in solving critical pain points for hospitality suppliers seeking to monetize their property with rental income. In addition, the company offers Inspirato Pass for member to book pass trips; Inspirato Club for members to book trips up to one year in advance Inspirato for Good, a platform designed to help nonprofit organizations accelerate funding results; Inspirato for Business, a business-to-business channel through which subscription and travel products are sold directly to businesses seeking to leverage luxury accommodations to recruit, retain, and reward their employees. The company was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

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.