Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Receives $21.42 Average Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $21.42.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on MSDL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on 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. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research report on Friday, September 13th. UBS Group lowered shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $23.50 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price 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 note on Friday, July 26th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MSDL. Allworth Financial LP bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 1st quarter valued at $223,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 1st quarter valued at $223,000. Everpar Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 3rd quarter worth $377,000. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 3rd quarter worth $510,000.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Performance

NYSE MSDL opened at $20.02 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $19.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $20.05. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 1 year low of $19.05 and a 1 year high of $24.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.79 billion and a P/E ratio of 6.74. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

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 company had revenue of $104.19 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $101.60 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.55 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a — dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 24th. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a yield of 10.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s dividend payout ratio is 67.34%.

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.