Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Shares Down 0.5%

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL)’s share price was down 0.5% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $21.16 and last traded at $21.66. Approximately 36,887 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 48% from the average daily volume of 71,394 shares. The stock had previously closed at $21.76.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on MSDL shares. Raymond James started coverage on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $22.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $21.00 price target on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods started coverage on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $21.00 price target on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $20.50 to $21.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley Direct Lending presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.58.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $1.92 billion and a PE ratio of 6.91. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.47. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 1st. The company reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.66 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $100.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $97.34 million. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a return on equity of 13.08% and a net margin of 62.81%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.49 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th will be given 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 presently 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.