Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the six research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $21.58.

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

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of MSDL traded down $0.08 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $21.00. 264,795 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 619,652. The company has a quick ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a twelve month low of $19.05 and a twelve month high of $24.18. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $20.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $20.35. The stock has a market cap of $1.86 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.24.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.01. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a return on equity of 12.69% and a net margin of 54.89%. The business had revenue of $109.75 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $107.55 million. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Cuts Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSDL. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 4th quarter worth about $312,000. Activest Wealth Management boosted its position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 102.9% in the fourth quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 164,060 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,389,000 after buying an additional 83,217 shares in the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the fourth quarter worth about $392,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the fourth quarter worth approximately $258,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,110,000.

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.