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

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $21.58.

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MSDL. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $21.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $23.50 target price on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods initiated coverage on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $21.00 target price on the stock. Raymond James initiated coverage on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $22.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research report on Monday, March 4th.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Performance

Shares of MSDL opened at $21.09 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.46. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 1-year low of $19.05 and a 1-year high of $22.97. The stock has a market cap of $1.87 billion and a PE ratio of 6.74.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, March 1st. The company reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $100.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $97.34 million. On average, equities analysts expect that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Cuts Dividend

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

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.