Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (NYSE:MSDL) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (NYSE:MSDL) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seven research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $15.50.

Several research analysts have recently commented on MSDL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund from $14.00 to $14.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. UBS Group cut their price objective on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund from $16.25 to $15.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 1st.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of MSDL stock opened at $13.49 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.71 and a quick ratio of 1.71. The company has a market cap of $1.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.56 and a beta of 0.58. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund has a 1 year low of $13.43 and a 1 year high of $17.91. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $14.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $15.02.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (NYSE:MSDL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund had a return on equity of 9.61% and a net margin of 15.97%.The company had revenue of $88.77 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.99 million. As a group, equities analysts predict that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 30th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 13.3%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund’s payout ratio is currently 260.87%.

Institutional Trading of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Rivernorth Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund by 37.6% in the 1st quarter. Rivernorth Capital Management LLC now owns 1,052,351 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,691,000 after buying an additional 287,808 shares during the period. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund in the fourth quarter valued at about $10,719,000. Caz Investments LP bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund in the second quarter worth about $6,040,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund by 9.9% in the second quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 315,801 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,775,000 after acquiring an additional 28,418 shares during the period. Finally, TT Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. TT Capital Management LLC now owns 302,946 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,993,000 after purchasing an additional 5,387 shares in the last quarter.

About Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (NYSE: MSDL) is a business development company that seeks to generate current income and, to a lesser extent, long-term capital appreciation through investments in privately held middle-market companies. The fund is externally managed by MS Capital Partners Adviser Inc, an investment adviser affiliated with Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

MSDL primarily invests in directly originated senior secured loans, including first-lien and unitranche loans, to companies across a range of industries.