Envestnet Asset Management Inc. Acquires New Shares in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL)

Envestnet Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 62,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,291,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. owned about 0.07% of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MSDL. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,421,000. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 38.3% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 29,317 shares of the company’s stock valued at $606,000 after acquiring an additional 8,113 shares during the last quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 195.3% in the 4th quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP now owns 49,011 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,013,000 after acquiring an additional 32,414 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 207.9% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 237,754 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,912,000 after acquiring an additional 160,536 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 334.4% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 125,416 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,591,000 after buying an additional 96,544 shares during the period.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSDL has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $20.50 to $19.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $20.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.20.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Performance

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending stock opened at $19.47 on Wednesday. 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 company has a market cap of $1.71 billion, a PE ratio of 7.64 and a beta of 0.44. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $19.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $20.39. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 52 week low of $17.59 and a 52 week high of $24.18.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $103.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $107.02 million. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a net margin of 54.89% and a return on equity of 12.69%. Equities analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 10.27%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s dividend payout ratio is presently 82.30%.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending 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.