Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) and Trailblazer Merger Co. I (NASDAQ:TBMC) Financial Comparison

Trailblazer Merger Co. I (NASDAQ:TBMC) and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) are both small-cap unclassified companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and valuation.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

77.1% of Trailblazer Merger Co. I shares are owned by institutional investors. 23.5% of Trailblazer Merger Co. I shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Trailblazer Merger Co. I and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Trailblazer Merger Co. I	0	0	0	0	0.00
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	0	5	1	0	2.17

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a consensus target price of $21.58, indicating a potential upside of 4.88%. Given Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Morgan Stanley Direct Lending is more favorable than Trailblazer Merger Co. I.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Trailblazer Merger Co. I and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Trailblazer Merger Co. I	N/A	N/A	$1.35 million	N/A	N/A
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	$367.74 million	4.95	$231.01 million	$2.55	8.07

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has higher revenue and earnings than Trailblazer Merger Co. I.

Profitability

This table compares Trailblazer Merger Co. I and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Trailblazer Merger Co. I	N/A	-42.64%	1.87%
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	54.89%	12.69%	6.52%

Summary

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending beats Trailblazer Merger Co. I on 8 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Trailblazer Merger Co. I

Trailblazer Merger Corp. I is a blank check company, which engages in effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, and reorganization or other similar business combination. The company was founded on November 12, 2021 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

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.