Evergreen (NASDAQ:EVGR) and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Head-To-Head Contrast

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) and Evergreen (NASDAQ:EVGR) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, profitability, valuation and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

69.3% of Evergreen shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 42.2% of Evergreen shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Morgan Stanley Direct Lending and Evergreen”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	$253.06 million	6.67	$231.01 million	$2.43	7.91
Evergreen	N/A	N/A	$3.67 million	$0.28	42.74

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has higher revenue and earnings than Evergreen. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Evergreen, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	54.89%	12.69%	6.52%
Evergreen	N/A	-31.43%	4.04%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Morgan Stanley Direct Lending and Evergreen, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	0	5	1	0	2.17
Evergreen	0	0	0	0	0.00

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending currently has a consensus target price of $20.20, indicating a potential upside of 5.15%. Given Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Morgan Stanley Direct Lending is more favorable than Evergreen.

Summary

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending beats Evergreen on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Evergreen

Evergreen Corporation is a blank check company. It intends to enter into a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, recapitalization, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses or entities. The company was incorporated in 2021 and is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.