Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) to Issue — Dividend of $0.50

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) declared a — dividend on Monday, March 4th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 5th will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share on Friday, October 25th. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 5th.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of MSDL stock opened at $20.15 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $21.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $22.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market cap of $1.80 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.50. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a twelve month low of $19.05 and a twelve month high of $24.18.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.63. The firm had revenue of $99.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $98.65 million. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a net margin of 62.34% and a return on equity of 12.87%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on MSDL shares. Raymond James cut shares of 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 boosted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 29th. UBS Group lowered shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $23.50 price objective on the stock. in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 26th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $21.58.

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.