Contrasting Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (MSDL) and Its Peers

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) is one of 669 public companies in the “Holding & other investment offices” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Morgan Stanley Direct Lending to related companies based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and risk.

Dividends

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.4%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending pays out 63.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Holding & other investment offices” companies pay a dividend yield of 8.2% and pay out 71.3% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending is clearly a better dividend stock than its peers, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

53.9% of shares of all “Holding & other investment offices” companies are owned by institutional investors. 25.4% of shares of all “Holding & other investment offices” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Morgan Stanley Direct Lending and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	0	3	3	0	2.50
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Competitors	121	555	855	14	2.49

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending currently has a consensus target price of $21.58, indicating a potential upside of 1.14%. As a group, “Holding & other investment offices” companies have a potential upside of 99.58%. Given Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s peers higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Morgan Stanley Direct Lending and its peers revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	$367.74 million	$231.01 million	6.82
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Competitors	$1.10 billion	-$60.22 million	47.63

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s peers have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Morgan Stanley Direct Lending. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Morgan Stanley Direct Lending and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	62.81%	11.51%	5.99%
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Competitors	-34.70%	-44.81%	-0.04%

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.