Head-To-Head Review: Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (MSDL) versus Its Competitors

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) is one of 671 public companies in the “Holding & other investment offices” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Morgan Stanley Direct Lending to similar businesses based on the strength of its dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Morgan Stanley Direct Lending and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	0	3	3	0	2.50
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Competitors	122	567	885	14	2.50

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending presently has a consensus price target of $21.58, suggesting a potential upside of 1.52%. As a group, “Holding & other investment offices” companies have a potential upside of 93.81%. Given Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s competitors higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Morgan Stanley Direct Lending and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	$257.26 million	$231.01 million	6.79
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Competitors	$1.05 billion	-$57.64 million	54.26

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s competitors have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Morgan Stanley Direct Lending. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Morgan Stanley Direct Lending and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	62.81%	11.51%	5.99%
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Competitors	-34.70%	-44.81%	-0.04%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

53.6% of shares of all “Holding & other investment offices” companies are held by institutional investors. 25.0% of shares of all “Holding & other investment offices” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.4%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending pays out 63.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Holding & other investment offices” companies pay a dividend yield of 8.1% and pay out 71.3% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending is clearly a better dividend stock than its competitors, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

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.