Short Interest in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Drops By 16.6%

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 70,600 shares, a decline of 16.6% from the September 30th total of 84,700 shares. Currently, 0.1% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 244,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.3 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MSDL. Van ECK Associates Corp bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 1st quarter valued at $32,973,000. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter worth about $646,000. Cliffwater LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter worth about $47,035,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $223,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $223,000.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research note on Friday, September 13th. UBS Group cut Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $23.50 price objective for the company. in a report on Thursday, July 18th. 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 research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $21.42.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MSDL traded up $0.44 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $20.25. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,055,000 shares, compared to its average volume of 163,447. 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 has a market cap of $1.81 billion and a P/E ratio of 6.82. The business's 50 day moving average price is $19.97 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $20.07. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a fifty-two week low of $19.05 and a fifty-two week high of $24.18.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.63. The firm had revenue of $104.19 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $101.60 million. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a return on equity of 12.57% and a net margin of 60.60%. On average, analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Cuts Dividend

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

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.