Analysts Set Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) PT at $21.42

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $21.42.

MSDL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a report on Friday, September 13th. UBS Group cut shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $23.50 price target on the stock. in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of 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. decreased their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 29th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Everpar Advisors LLC bought a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the third quarter valued at $377,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 16.3% during the second 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 during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC boosted 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 buying an additional 12,076 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter valued at about $223,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter valued at about $223,000.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Price Performance

Shares of MSDL stock opened at $20.09 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 1 year low of $19.05 and a 1 year high of $24.18. The company has a market cap of $1.80 billion and a PE ratio of 6.48.

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

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a — dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 24th. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 4th. This represents a yield of 10.1%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.52%.

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.