Brokerages Set Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) PT at $21.58

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the six analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $21.58.

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Price Performance

Shares of MSDL opened at $20.72 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.83 billion and a PE ratio of 8.13. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $21.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $20.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a current ratio of 1.56. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a twelve month low of $19.05 and a twelve month high of $24.18.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.01. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a net margin of 54.89% and a return on equity of 12.69%. The firm had revenue of $109.75 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $107.55 million. As a group, research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a — dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 24th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a dividend yield of 10.1%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s payout ratio is 78.43%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Denali Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the fourth quarter worth $1,918,000. Truist Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 48.0% in the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 27,228 shares of the company’s stock worth $563,000 after acquiring an additional 8,830 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the fourth quarter worth $286,000. Americana Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the fourth quarter worth $2,819,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,922,174 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,712,000 after acquiring an additional 71,855 shares during the last quarter.

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.