Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Given Average Rating of "Hold" by Analysts

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL - Get Free Report) have received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the six research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $21.42.

MSDL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 29th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research note on Friday, September 13th. UBS Group lowered Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $23.50 price target for the company. in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on 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.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Performance

MSDL traded up $0.14 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $20.02. The stock had a trading volume of 373,000 shares, compared to its average volume of 457,890. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 1 year low of $19.05 and a 1 year high of $24.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The company's fifty day moving average is $19.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.79 billion and a P/E ratio of 6.74.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.63. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a net margin of 60.60% and a return on equity of 12.57%. The company had revenue of $104.19 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $101.60 million. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a -- dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 4th. This represents a dividend yield of 10.1%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 67.34%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter worth about $646,000. Cliffwater LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter worth $47,035,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter worth $223,000. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter valued at $223,000. Finally, Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 64.8% in the 2nd quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 30,713 shares of the company's stock worth $671,000 after purchasing an additional 12,076 shares during the last quarter.

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.