Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (MSDL) vs. Its Rivals Financial Contrast

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) is one of 654 publicly-traded companies in the “Holding & other investment offices” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare Morgan Stanley Direct Lending to similar companies based on the strength of its risk, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Morgan Stanley Direct Lending and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	62.81%	11.51%	5.99%
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Competitors	5.40%	-54.27%	2.53%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Morgan Stanley Direct Lending and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	0	3	3	0	2.50
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Competitors	121	549	836	14	2.49

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending currently has a consensus price target of $21.58, indicating a potential upside of 1.76%. As a group, “Holding & other investment offices” companies have a potential upside of 149.39%. Given Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s competitors higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Morgan Stanley Direct Lending and its competitors revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending	$367.74 million	$231.01 million	6.78
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Competitors	$1.27 billion	-$77.20 million	53.76

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s competitors have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Morgan Stanley Direct Lending. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.4%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending pays out 63.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Holding & other investment offices” companies pay a dividend yield of 6.8% and pay out 63.9% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending is clearly a better dividend stock than its competitors, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

54.0% of shares of all “Holding & other investment offices” companies are owned by institutional investors. 25.5% of shares of all “Holding & other investment offices” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

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.