Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 164,100 shares, a drop of 51.2% from the December 31st total of 336,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 524,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.3 days. Approximately 0.2% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Everpar Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 3rd quarter valued at $377,000. Raymond James & Associates lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 377.5% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 123,822 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,449,000 after purchasing an additional 97,893 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the third quarter worth $32,000. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 3.9% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,850,319 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,192,000 after buying an additional 70,076 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ASB Consultores LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,589,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.58.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Trading Up 0.6 %

MSDL stock traded up $0.13 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $21.01. 519,321 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 645,046. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a one year low of $19.05 and a one year high of $24.18. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $20.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $20.36. The company has a market cap of $1.87 billion and a PE ratio of 8.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a current ratio of 1.56.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $109.75 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $107.55 million. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a return on equity of 12.69% and a net margin of 54.89%. Research analysts predict that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a — dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 24th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 10.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s payout ratio is 78.43%.

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.