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

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $21.42.

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MSDL. UBS Group lowered 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 note on Thursday, July 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced 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. Wells Fargo & Company dropped 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 research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research report on Friday, September 13th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 250,167 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of 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 worth $671,000 after purchasing an additional 12,076 shares in the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter worth about $646,000. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $223,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 1st quarter worth approximately $223,000.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSDL opened at $19.92 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The firm has a market cap of $1.78 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.43. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $20.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $20.69. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a fifty-two week low of $19.05 and a fifty-two week high of $24.18.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.63. The firm 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%. On average, analysts expect that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Cuts Dividend

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

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.