Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) to Issue $0.50 Quarterly Dividend

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 8th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share on Thursday, July 25th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Performance

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending stock opened at $23.56 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $2.11 billion and a P/E ratio of 7.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $22.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $22.20. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 1-year low of $19.05 and a 1-year high of $24.18.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63. The company had revenue of $99.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $98.65 million. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a return on equity of 12.87% and a net margin of 62.34%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.52 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on MSDL. Raymond James downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $20.50 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $21.92.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Company Profile

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.