Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) PT Lowered to $20.00 at Wells Fargo & Company

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) had its price objective cut by Wells Fargo & Company from $21.00 to $20.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the stock.

MSDL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Raymond James lowered Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report on Monday, May 13th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, May 23rd. UBS Group lowered Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $23.50 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $20.50 to $21.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $21.58.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of MSDL stock opened at $20.20 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.81 billion and a P/E ratio of 6.52. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a twelve month low of $19.05 and a twelve month high of $24.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $22.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.44.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a return on equity of 12.87% and a net margin of 62.34%. The business had revenue of $99.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $98.65 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.90%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 28th. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 64.52%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 64.8% during the second quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 30,713 shares of the company’s stock valued at $671,000 after purchasing an additional 12,076 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter worth $223,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter worth $223,000. Cliffwater LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter worth $47,035,000. Finally, Capstone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter worth $646,000.

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.