Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Hits New 12-Month High at $23.06

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) reached a new 52-week high on Thursday . The company traded as high as $23.06 and last traded at $23.06, with a volume of 8465 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $22.93.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on MSDL shares. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $23.50 price objective on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $20.50 to $21.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods assumed coverage on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $21.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Raymond James began coverage on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $22.00 target price on the stock. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley Direct Lending currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.58.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average of $21.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.05 billion and a PE ratio of 7.38.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last released its earnings results on Friday, March 1st. The company reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $100.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $97.34 million. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a net margin of 62.81% and a return on equity of 13.08%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a — dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th will be given a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 4th. This represents a dividend yield of 10.1%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 63.90%.

Institutional Trading of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

A hedge fund recently bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending stock. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 30,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $646,000.

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.