Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.50 (NYSE:MSDL)

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (NYSE:MSDL) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 6th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share on Friday, January 23rd. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 12.2%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 31st.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund Stock Performance

NYSE MSDL traded down $0.21 on Friday, reaching $16.41. The stock had a trading volume of 830,190 shares, compared to its average volume of 641,419. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.19. The stock has a market cap of $1.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.49 and a beta of 0.26. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $17.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $18.39. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund has a 12-month low of $15.70 and a 12-month high of $21.75.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (NYSE:MSDL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.01. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund had a return on equity of 11.24% and a net margin of 42.65%.The company had revenue of $99.72 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $98.55 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company set a $17.00 price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund from $19.50 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. Raymond James Financial set a $18.50 price objective on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.08.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund 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.