Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (MSDL) Competitors

Blue Owl Capital Co. III (NYSE:OBDE) and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, community ranking, valuation, profitability, risk, earnings, dividends and media sentiment.

Is OBDE or MSDL a better dividend stock?

Blue Owl Capital Co. III pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.3%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.6%. Blue Owl Capital Co. III pays out 79.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending pays out 78.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in OBDE or MSDL?

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending received 6 more outperform votes than Blue Owl Capital Co. III when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 100.00% of users gave Blue Owl Capital Co. III an outperform vote while only 43.75% of users gave Morgan Stanley Direct Lending an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Blue Owl Capital Co. III	Outperform Votes 1 100.00%	Underperform Votes No Votes
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	Outperform Votes 7 43.75%	Underperform Votes 9 56.25%

Which has higher earnings and valuation, OBDE or MSDL?

Blue Owl Capital Co. III has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Morgan Stanley Direct Lending. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Blue Owl Capital Co. III, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Blue Owl Capital Co. III	$244.17M	7.60	$271.96M	$1.76	8.55
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	$367.74M	5.03	$231.01M	$2.55	8.17

Do analysts rate OBDE or MSDL?

Blue Owl Capital Co. III presently has a consensus price target of $16.00, indicating a potential upside of 6.38%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a consensus price target of $21.42, indicating a potential upside of 2.77%. Given Blue Owl Capital Co. III's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Blue Owl Capital Co. III is more favorable than Morgan Stanley Direct Lending.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Blue Owl Capital Co. III	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.17

Does the media refer more to OBDE or MSDL?

In the previous week, Blue Owl Capital Co. III had 3 more articles in the media than Morgan Stanley Direct Lending. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Blue Owl Capital Co. III and 1 mentions for Morgan Stanley Direct Lending. Blue Owl Capital Co. III's average media sentiment score of 1.02 beat Morgan Stanley Direct Lending's score of 0.00 indicating that Blue Owl Capital Co. III is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Blue Owl Capital Co. III	2 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Is OBDE or MSDL more profitable?

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a net margin of 54.89% compared to Blue Owl Capital Co. III's net margin of 45.35%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending's return on equity of 12.69% beat Blue Owl Capital Co. III's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Blue Owl Capital Co. III	45.35%	11.52%	5.22%
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	54.89%	12.69%	6.52%

Summary

Blue Owl Capital Co. III and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending tied by winning 8 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.