Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

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

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Raymond James lowered shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, May 13th. Wells Fargo & Company cut 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective 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. Finally, UBS Group lowered 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.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Price Performance

MSDL stock opened at $20.70 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.85 billion and a P/E ratio of 6.68. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $20.05 and its 200 day moving average is $21.89. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 52 week low of $19.05 and a 52 week high of $24.18. 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 (NYSE:MSDL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a return on equity of 12.87% and a net margin of 62.34%. The firm had revenue of $104.19 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $101.60 million. Research 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 business also recently announced a — dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 10.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s payout ratio is 64.52%.

Institutional Trading of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lifted 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 period. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 1st quarter valued at $646,000. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 1st quarter worth about $223,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 1st quarter worth about $223,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 16.3% during 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 period.

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.