Analyzing Valuence Merger Corp. I (NASDAQ:VMCA) & Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL)

Valuence Merger Corp. I (NASDAQ:VMCA) and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) are both unclassified companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, earnings, risk and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

52.2% of Valuence Merger Corp. I shares are held by institutional investors. 47.0% of Valuence Merger Corp. I shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Valuence Merger Corp. I and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Valuence Merger Corp. I	N/A	N/A	$4.77 million	N/A	N/A
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	$367.74 million	5.70	$231.01 million	$3.10	7.56

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has higher revenue and earnings than Valuence Merger Corp. I.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Valuence Merger Corp. I and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Valuence Merger Corp. I	0	0	0	0	N/A
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	0	4	2	0	2.33

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a consensus target price of $21.92, indicating a potential downside of 6.50%. Given Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Morgan Stanley Direct Lending is more favorable than Valuence Merger Corp. I.

Profitability

This table compares Valuence Merger Corp. I and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Valuence Merger Corp. I	N/A	-30.65%	5.17%
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	62.34%	12.87%	6.39%

Summary

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending beats Valuence Merger Corp. I on 7 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Valuence Merger Corp. I

Valuence Merger Corp. I does not have significant operations. The company focuses on effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination with one or more businesses or entities. It intends to identify a business in Asia that is developing breakthrough technology in life sciences and/or advancing a platform for sustainable technology. The company was incorporated in 2021 and is based in Orinda, California.

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.