Analyzing Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) & PowerUp Acquisition (NASDAQ:PWUP)

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

19.2% of PowerUp Acquisition shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 48.0% of PowerUp Acquisition shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	62.34%	12.87%	6.39%
PowerUp Acquisition	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Morgan Stanley Direct Lending and PowerUp Acquisition, 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
PowerUp Acquisition	0	0	0	0	N/A

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending currently has a consensus target price of $21.92, indicating a potential upside of 9.04%. Given Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Morgan Stanley Direct Lending is more favorable than PowerUp Acquisition.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Morgan Stanley Direct Lending and PowerUp Acquisition’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	$367.74 million	4.91	$231.01 million	$3.10	6.52
PowerUp Acquisition	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has higher revenue and earnings than PowerUp Acquisition.

Summary

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending beats PowerUp Acquisition on 6 of the 8 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 PowerUp Acquisition

PowerUp Acquisition Corp. does not have significant operations. The company focuses on effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination with one or more businesses. It intends to focus on video gaming, gaming adjacent, and metaverse businesses. PowerUp Acquisition Corp. was incorporated in 2021 and is based in New York, New York.