Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (MSDL) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.45 on October 23rd

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (NYSE:MSDL) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, August 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.45 per share on Friday, October 23rd. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 12.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 30th.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund Price Performance

MSDL opened at $14.29 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 1.71 and a current ratio of 1.71. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund has a 1-year low of $13.66 and a 1-year high of $17.91. The company has a 50-day moving average of $15.08 and a 200-day moving average of $15.06. The company has a market capitalization of $1.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.70 and a beta of 0.54.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (NYSE:MSDL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.45. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund had a net margin of 15.97% and a return on equity of 9.61%. The firm had revenue of $59.28 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.99 million. Equities analysts expect that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund will post 1.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on MSDL. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund from $16.25 to $15.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund from $14.00 to $14.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $15.50.

About Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (NYSE: MSDL) is a business development company focused on providing financing to middle-market companies. The fund seeks to generate current income and, to a lesser extent, capital appreciation by investing primarily in privately negotiated senior secured loans and other debt investments.

MSDL generally targets established businesses across a range of industries and may make investments in companies backed by private equity sponsors as well as in non-sponsored businesses.