Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) saw strong trading volume on Wednesday . 568,251 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 208% from the previous session’s volume of 184,312 shares.The stock last traded at $20.35 and had previously closed at $19.96.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 29th. UBS Group cut Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $23.50 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.42.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Performance

The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $19.96 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $20.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market cap of $1.80 billion and a PE ratio of 7.96.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a — dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 24th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a yield of 10.1%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s dividend payout ratio is currently 78.43%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MSDL. Cliffwater LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter valued at $47,035,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the first quarter valued at $223,000. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 1st quarter valued at $223,000. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 64.8% during the 2nd 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. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 16.3% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,780,243 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,898,000 after purchasing an additional 250,167 shares during the period.

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.