Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (MSDL) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 31st

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending (NYSE:MSDL) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 27th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given 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 of this dividend is Monday, March 31st.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Stock Performance

Shares of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending stock traded down $0.47 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $20.23. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,569,351 shares, compared to its average volume of 672,294. The stock has a market cap of $1.79 billion and a P/E ratio of 7.93. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending has a one year low of $19.05 and a one year high of $24.18. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $20.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.47. 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 released its quarterly 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). The firm had revenue of $103.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $107.02 million. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending had a return on equity of 12.69% and a net margin of 54.89%. As a group, analysts expect that Morgan Stanley Direct Lending will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Morgan Stanley Direct Lending from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.