Zuckerman Investment Group LLC Acquires Shares of 36,000 Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL)

Zuckerman Investment Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 36,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $756,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 4.4% during the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 15,900 shares of the company’s stock worth $315,000 after buying an additional 669 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 11.6% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 38,625 shares of the company’s stock valued at $764,000 after purchasing an additional 4,025 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 15.5% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 34,161 shares of the company’s stock worth $706,000 after purchasing an additional 4,573 shares in the last quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 36.2% during the fourth quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC now owns 25,969 shares of the company’s stock worth $537,000 after purchasing an additional 6,901 shares during the period. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending by 38.3% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 29,317 shares of the company’s stock valued at $606,000 after buying an additional 8,113 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSDL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed 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 decreased 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 report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.10.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MSDL opened at $18.78 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $20.27 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $20.45. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a fifty-two week low of $17.59 and a fifty-two week high of $24.18. The company has a market capitalization of $1.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.36 and a beta of 0.44. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.57 earnings per share (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 business had revenue of $103.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $107.02 million. Analysts expect that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 10.65%. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.