Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $21.42.

MSDL has been the topic of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on 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. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of 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. UBS Group lowered shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $23.50 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, 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.

Institutional Trading of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 1st quarter valued at $646,000. Cliffwater LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter valued at about $47,035,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter worth about $223,000. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter worth about $223,000. Finally, Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 64.8% in the second quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 30,713 shares of the company’s stock valued at $671,000 after purchasing an additional 12,076 shares during the last quarter.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Price Performance

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending stock opened at $20.22 on Friday. 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 price-to-earnings ratio of 6.81. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 1 year low of $19.05 and a 1 year high of $24.18. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $19.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.04.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 12.57% and a net margin of 60.60%. The business had revenue of $104.19 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $101.60 million. Sell-side analysts predict that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current year.

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.