Samalin Investment Counsel LLC Invests $229,000 in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL)

Samalin Investment Counsel LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 11,074 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $229,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSDL. Total Clarity Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 4th quarter valued at $204,000. Centiva Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the third quarter valued at $213,000. Caprock Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 3rd quarter valued at $245,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in the 4th quarter worth about $258,000. Finally, B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending during the 3rd quarter worth about $271,000.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on MSDL. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Four investment 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 an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.38.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE MSDL opened at $20.76 on Monday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $20.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.51. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a 52 week low of $19.28 and a 52 week high of $24.18. The stock has a market cap of $1.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.14 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a current ratio of 1.56.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $103.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $107.02 million. On average, research analysts predict that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s dividend payout ratio is currently 82.30%.

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.