Muzinich & Co. Inc. Takes Position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL)

Muzinich & Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 3,422 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cliffwater LLC purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter valued at $47,035,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 1st quarter valued at about $223,000. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the first quarter worth about $223,000. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 64.8% in the second quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 30,713 shares of the company’s stock worth $671,000 after purchasing an additional 12,076 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 16.3% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,780,243 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,898,000 after purchasing an additional 250,167 shares in the last quarter.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Up 0.6 %

MSDL stock opened at $20.33 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.80 billion and a P/E ratio of 7.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.56 and a quick ratio of 1.56. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 1-year low of $19.05 and a 1-year high of $24.18. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $19.99 and a 200-day moving average price of $20.07.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a — dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 24th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a $0.10 dividend. This represents a yield of 10.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 78.43%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on MSDL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.42.

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.