Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the six research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $21.58.

MSDL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group initiated coverage on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $23.50 price target on the stock. Raymond James assumed coverage on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $22.00 price target on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $20.50 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $21.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods assumed coverage on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $21.00 price objective for the company.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Performance

NYSE:MSDL opened at $21.34 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $21.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.90 billion and a P/E ratio of 6.82. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 52-week low of $19.05 and a 52-week high of $22.97.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last released its earnings results on Friday, March 1st. The company reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $100.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $97.34 million. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a return on equity of 11.51% and a net margin of 62.81%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a — dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 24th. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 10.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 63.90%.

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.