Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Corp. (NYSE:NCDL) Stock Now Rated “Hold” by Sell-Side Brokerages

Shares of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Corp. (NYSE:NCDL) have received an average rating of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $13.62.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on NCDL. Zacks Research upgraded Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. UBS Group upgraded shares of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $14.75 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 1st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $13.00 to $12.00 in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending from $15.00 to $13.50 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 10th.

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending stock opened at $10.70 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $12.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $12.75. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending has a 1-year low of $10.54 and a 1-year high of $15.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $528.52 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.26 and a beta of 0.55.

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $11.14 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $46.72 million. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending had a net margin of 24.44% and a return on equity of 9.60%. As a group, research analysts predict that Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 30th will be paid a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 13.5%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 30th. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 151.58%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Closed End Fund Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $7,374,000. Centurion Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending during the 2nd quarter worth $3,879,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S lifted its holdings in Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending by 454.3% during the 4th quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 150,476 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,007,000 after buying an additional 123,327 shares in the last quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. acquired a new position in Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending during the 4th quarter worth $1,271,000. Finally, NewEdge Wealth LLC boosted its position in Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending by 199.3% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 89,776 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,142,000 after buying an additional 59,777 shares during the last quarter.

About Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Corp. (NYSE:NCDL) is a business development company that seeks to generate current income and, to a lesser extent, long-term capital appreciation by investing in privately owned middle-market companies. The company primarily focuses on directly originated loans and other debt investments rather than publicly traded securities.

NCDL generally invests in senior-secured loans, including first-lien and unitranche loans, and may make select junior debt and equity investments.