Analysts Set Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) PT at $21.42

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $21.42.

MSDL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a report on Friday, September 13th. UBS Group cut shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $23.50 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of 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, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 29th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter valued at approximately $223,000. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter valued at approximately $223,000. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter valued at approximately $646,000. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 64.8% in the second quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 30,713 shares of the company’s stock valued at $671,000 after buying an additional 12,076 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,973,000.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSDL opened at $20.17 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $20.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $21.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.80 billion and a PE ratio of 6.51. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a twelve month low of $19.05 and a twelve month high of $24.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

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, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.63. The company had revenue of $104.19 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $101.60 million. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a net margin of 60.60% and a return on equity of 12.57%. Equities research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.54 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Announces Dividend

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