Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Trading Up 1.2%

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) was up 1.2% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $20.25 and last traded at $20.17. Approximately 179,686 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 12% from the average daily volume of 159,934 shares. The stock had previously closed at $19.94.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on MSDL shares. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research report on Friday, September 13th. UBS Group lowered Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $23.50 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered 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 target price on 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. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $21.42.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The firm has a market cap of $1.80 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $20.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $21.26.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last released 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 return on equity of 12.57% and a net margin of 60.60%. The company had revenue of $104.19 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $101.60 million. Equities research analysts predict that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Trading of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter worth approximately $223,000. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter worth approximately $223,000. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter worth approximately $646,000. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC raised 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 acquiring an additional 12,076 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp bought a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter valued at approximately $32,973,000.

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.