Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL)

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Royal Bank of Canada in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $22.00 price target on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target suggests a potential upside of 8.64% from the company’s previous close.

MSDL has been the subject of several other research reports. UBS Group cut 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 research report on Thursday, July 18th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.42.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Performance

Shares of MSDL traded up $0.09 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $20.25. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 13,223 shares, compared to its average volume of 135,438. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $20.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $21.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.81 billion and a PE ratio of 6.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a one year low of $19.05 and a one year high of $24.18.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.63. The business had revenue of $104.19 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $101.60 million. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a net margin of 60.60% and a return on equity of 12.57%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.54 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cliffwater LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter valued at $47,035,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 16.3% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,780,243 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,898,000 after buying an additional 250,167 shares in the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 64.8% during the 2nd quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 30,713 shares of the company’s stock valued at $671,000 after buying an additional 12,076 shares in the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 1st quarter worth approximately $646,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter valued at $223,000.

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.