Wells Fargo & Company Cuts Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) Price Target to $19.00

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) had its price objective lowered by Wells Fargo & Company from $20.00 to $19.00 in a research report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on MSDL. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $20.50 to $19.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $20.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.20.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Performance

Shares of MSDL stock opened at $19.46 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $20.39. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 12 month low of $17.59 and a 12 month high of $24.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market cap of $1.71 billion, a PE ratio of 7.63 and a beta of 0.44.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by ($0.06). Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a return on equity of 12.69% and a net margin of 54.89%. The company had revenue of $103.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $107.02 million. Equities research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 10.28%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s payout ratio is presently 82.30%.

Institutional Trading of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,922,174 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,712,000 after buying an additional 71,855 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 1,987.0% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 352,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,287,000 after purchasing an additional 335,800 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 207.9% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 237,754 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,912,000 after purchasing an additional 160,536 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 96.1% during the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 200,292 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,998,000 after buying an additional 98,174 shares during the period. Finally, TT Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 332.3% in the 1st quarter. TT Capital Management LLC now owns 198,772 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,967,000 after buying an additional 152,792 shares during the last quarter.

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.