Wells Fargo & Company MN Buys 8,113 Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL)

Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) by 38.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 29,317 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,113 shares during the quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN’s holdings in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending were worth $606,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 195.3% during the 4th quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP now owns 49,011 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,013,000 after purchasing an additional 32,414 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position 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 buying an additional 160,536 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 334.4% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 125,416 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,591,000 after acquiring an additional 96,544 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 96.3% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 56,164 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,160,000 after acquiring an additional 27,552 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Samalin Investment Counsel LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 4th quarter valued at about $229,000.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSDL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $20.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $20.50 to $19.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.20.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Up 0.8 %

MSDL opened at $19.40 on Friday. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 12 month low of $17.59 and a 12 month high of $24.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $19.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $20.38. The company has a market cap of $1.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.61 and a beta of 0.44.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last announced 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 company had revenue of $103.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $107.02 million. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a return on equity of 12.69% and a net margin of 54.89%. On average, equities analysts expect that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 10.31%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s payout ratio is currently 82.30%.

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.