Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (NYSE:MSDL) Receives $18.08 Average Price Target from Analysts

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (NYSE:MSDL) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seven brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $18.0833.

MSDL has been the subject of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund from $19.50 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Raymond James Financial set a $18.50 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $17.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of NYSE:MSDL opened at $16.84 on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund has a twelve month low of $15.70 and a twelve month high of $21.75. The firm has a market cap of $1.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.72 and a beta of 0.25. The company has a 50 day moving average of $17.33 and a 200-day moving average of $18.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (NYSE:MSDL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.02). Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund had a net margin of 42.65% and a return on equity of 11.24%. The business had revenue of $99.51 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.99 million. As a group, analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.9%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund’s payout ratio is currently 103.63%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Michael Jr. Occi purchased 14,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $17.78 per share, for a total transaction of $248,920.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer directly owned 21,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $382,270. The trade was a 186.67% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Joan Binstock purchased 9,030 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $16.64 per share, for a total transaction of $150,259.20. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 50,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $832,698.88. This trade represents a 22.02% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have acquired 66,937 shares of company stock worth $1,175,272 over the last three months. 0.21% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSDL. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund by 62.3% in the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,606 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund by 225.0% in the 2nd quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 3,250 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 2,250 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $71,000.

About Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund

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.