Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Receives $21.42 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the six ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $21.42.

A number of research firms have recently commented on MSDL. UBS Group downgraded Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $23.50 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research note on Friday, September 13th.

Institutional Trading of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MSDL. Allworth Financial LP acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. Muzinich & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the third quarter valued at $68,000. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 1st quarter worth about $223,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 1st quarter worth about $223,000. Finally, Caprock Group LLC purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 3rd quarter valued at about $245,000.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Up 1.9 %

MSDL stock opened at $20.22 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $19.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $20.04. The company has a market capitalization of $1.81 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.81. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 52 week low of $19.05 and a 52 week high of $24.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.63. The firm had revenue of $104.19 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $101.60 million. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a return on equity of 12.57% and a net margin of 60.60%. On average, analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.