Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (MSDL) vs. The Competition Head-To-Head Comparison

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) is one of 676 public companies in the “Holding & other investment offices” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Morgan Stanley Direct Lending to related businesses based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, risk, dividends, profitability and institutional ownership.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

53.8% of shares of all “Holding & other investment offices” companies are held by institutional investors. 25.5% of shares of all “Holding & other investment offices” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Morgan Stanley Direct Lending and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	0	3	3	0	2.50
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Competitors	121	558	860	14	2.49

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending presently has a consensus price target of $21.58, suggesting a potential upside of 1.14%. As a group, “Holding & other investment offices” companies have a potential upside of 113.19%. Given Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s peers higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Morgan Stanley Direct Lending and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	$367.74 million	$231.01 million	6.82
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Competitors	$1.13 billion	-$65.58 million	45.94

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s peers have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Morgan Stanley Direct Lending. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.4%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending pays out 63.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Holding & other investment offices” companies pay a dividend yield of 7.4% and pay out 65.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending is clearly a better dividend stock than its peers, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Morgan Stanley Direct Lending and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	62.81%	11.51%	5.99%
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Competitors	-40.62%	-49.55%	-0.62%

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.