Reviewing Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (NYSE:MSDL) and CaliberCos (NASDAQ:CWD)

CaliberCos (NASDAQ:CWD) and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (NYSE:MSDL) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation and profitability.

Volatility and Risk

CaliberCos has a beta of -0.1, meaning that its stock price is 110% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund has a beta of 0.58, meaning that its stock price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for CaliberCos and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CaliberCos	1	0	0	0	1.00
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund	0	6	1	0	2.14

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund has a consensus target price of $15.17, suggesting a potential upside of 14.77%. Given Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund is more favorable than CaliberCos.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares CaliberCos and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CaliberCos	$20.10 million	0.21	-$21.80 million	($3.79)	-0.10
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund	$397.29 million	2.80	$122.09 million	$0.69	19.15

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund has higher revenue and earnings than CaliberCos. CaliberCos is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares CaliberCos and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CaliberCos	-117.34%	-75.44%	-13.87%
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund	15.97%	9.61%	4.28%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

4.1% of CaliberCos shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.3% of CaliberCos shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund beats CaliberCos on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CaliberCos

Caliber (NASDAQ: CWD) is a vertically integrated alternative asset management firm whose purpose is to build generational wealth for investors seeking to access opportunities in middle-market assets. Caliber differentiates itself by creating, managing, and servicing proprietary products, including middle-market investment funds, private syndications, and direct investments which are managed by our in-house asset services group. Our funds include investment vehicles focused primarily on real estate, private equity, and debt facilities. Additional information can be found at Caliberco.com and CaliberFunds.co.

About Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund

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.