Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Receives $21.58 Average Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the six brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $21.58.

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSDL. Truist Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 48.0% in the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 27,228 shares of the company’s stock worth $563,000 after buying an additional 8,830 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the fourth quarter worth about $286,000. Americana Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the fourth quarter worth about $2,819,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,922,174 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,712,000 after purchasing an additional 71,855 shares during the period. Finally, Opal Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 4th quarter worth approximately $312,000.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Performance

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending stock opened at $21.01 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 12 month low of $19.05 and a 12 month high of $24.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.86 billion and a P/E ratio of 8.24.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.01. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a net margin of 54.89% and a return on equity of 12.69%. The firm had revenue of $109.75 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $107.55 million. As a group, analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a — dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 10.1%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 78.43%.

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.