Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the six analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $21.42.

Separately, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research report on Friday, September 13th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 4.4% in the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 15,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $315,000 after purchasing an additional 669 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Muzinich & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the third quarter valued at approximately $68,000. Stifel Financial Corp raised its stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 11.6% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 38,625 shares of the company’s stock valued at $764,000 after buying an additional 4,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter valued at approximately $223,000.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MSDL opened at $20.83 on Thursday. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 1-year low of $19.05 and a 1-year high of $24.18. The business has a 50-day moving average of $20.08 and a 200-day moving average of $20.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.56 and a quick ratio of 1.56. The company has a market capitalization of $1.85 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.17.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a — dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a yield of 10.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s dividend payout ratio is currently 78.43%.

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.