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

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the six research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $21.58.

MSDL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Raymond James lowered Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, May 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 23rd. UBS Group lowered shares of 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 report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective 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 report on Friday, July 26th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 1st quarter worth approximately $223,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter worth $223,000. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter worth $646,000. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 64.8% during 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 period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter valued at $32,973,000.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Performance

MSDL stock opened at $20.59 on Friday. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 1-year low of $19.05 and a 1-year high of $24.18. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $22.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $22.41. The company has a market capitalization of $1.84 billion and a P/E ratio of 6.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

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

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 25th. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 28th. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s payout ratio is 64.52%.

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.