Royal Bank of Canada Reiterates Outperform Rating for Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL)

Royal Bank of Canada reissued their outperform rating on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL - Free Report) in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a $22.00 price target on the stock.

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company lowered 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 report on Monday, March 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $21.38.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Performance

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending stock traded up $0.26 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $20.24. 635,022 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 681,316. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.56 and a quick ratio of 1.56. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 1 year low of $19.28 and a 1 year high of $24.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.94 and a beta of 0.65. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $20.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $20.48.

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Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.63 by ($0.06). Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a net margin of 54.89% and a return on equity of 12.69%. The business had revenue of $103.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $107.02 million. As a group, analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending's dividend payout ratio is 82.30%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSDL. Comerica Bank lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 2,568 shares of the company's stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 1,284 shares in the last quarter. Muzinich & Co. Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 3rd quarter valued at about $68,000. RE Dickinson Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 4th quarter valued at about $84,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 4th quarter valued at about $103,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 515.5% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 6,771 shares of the company's stock valued at $140,000 after buying an additional 5,671 shares in the last quarter.

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.