Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Given New $22.00 Price Target at Royal Bank of Canada

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) had its target price trimmed by Royal Bank of Canada from $23.00 to $22.00 in a research report released on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on MSDL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 26th. UBS Group downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $23.50 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Raymond James downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report on Monday, May 13th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $21.42.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE MSDL traded down $0.25 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $19.57. 183,376 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 130,328. The business’s fifty day moving average is $21.16 and its 200 day moving average is $22.20. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a fifty-two week low of $19.05 and a fifty-two week high of $24.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.75 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.31. 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 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 firm had revenue of $104.19 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $101.60 million. Equities research analysts predict that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a — dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a yield of 10.1%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s payout ratio is 64.52%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Cliffwater LLC purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter valued at about $47,035,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 16.3% in the second 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 last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC boosted 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 acquiring an additional 12,076 shares during the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter valued at about $646,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter valued at about $223,000.

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.