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

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 27th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share on Friday, April 25th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.89%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending stock traded down $0.47 on Friday, hitting $20.23. 1,569,351 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 672,294. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 12-month low of $19.05 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 company has a market cap of $1.79 billion and a PE ratio of 7.93. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $20.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.47.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by ($0.06). Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a net margin of 54.89% and a return on equity of 12.69%. The firm had revenue of $103.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $107.02 million. Sell-side analysts predict that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Four equities 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, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $21.63.

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.