Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Sees Strong Trading Volume

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) saw an uptick in trading volume on Tuesday . 179,777 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 85% from the previous session’s volume of 96,992 shares.The stock last traded at $20.80 and had previously closed at $21.13.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSDL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Raymond James lowered shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $20.50 to $21.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. UBS Group downgraded Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $23.50 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $21.92.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Down 4.4 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.81 billion and a P/E ratio of 6.52. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.52.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.63. The company had revenue of $99.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $98.65 million. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a return on equity of 12.87% and a net margin of 62.34%. As a group, research analysts predict that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s payout ratio is 64.52%.

Institutional Trading of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter valued at about $223,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 1st quarter worth approximately $223,000. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 1st quarter worth approximately $646,000. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 64.8% in the second 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 last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp bought a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter valued at $32,973,000.

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.