Head to Head Comparison: Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (NYSE:MSDL) versus Siebert Financial (NASDAQ:SIEB)

Siebert Financial (NASDAQ:SIEB) and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (NYSE:MSDL) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Siebert Financial and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Siebert Financial	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 price target of $15.50, suggesting a potential upside of 15.67%. 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 Siebert Financial.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

1.5% of Siebert Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 46.0% of Siebert Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Siebert Financial has a beta of 0.96, indicating that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund has a beta of 0.58, indicating that its stock price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Siebert Financial	-1.07%	-1.25%	-0.15%
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund	15.97%	9.61%	4.28%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Siebert Financial and Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Siebert Financial	$94.20 million	0.99	$5.12 million	($0.03)	-75.33
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund	$72.45 million	15.56	$122.09 million	$0.69	19.42

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Siebert Financial. Siebert Financial 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.

Summary

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund beats Siebert Financial on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Siebert Financial

Siebert Financial Corp., through its subsidiaries, engages in the retail brokerage and investment advisory businesses in the United States and Internationally. It offers self-directed trading, market making and fixed income investment, stock borrow, stock loan, equity compensation plans, wealth management, and financial advisory services; independent retail execution services; and retail customer services. The company also offers self-directed retirement accounts, as well as lends customers a portion of the market value of marginable securities held in the customer's account. In addition, the company provides data technology platform that offers various services, such as email and messaging, market data systems and third party trading systems, business productivity tools, and customer relationship management systems. Further, it offers a Robo-Advisor platform that provides clients with an automated wealth management solution; and various insurance products, such as fixed annuities, personal insurance, property and casualty insurance, natural disaster insurance, and life and disability. Siebert Financial Corp. was incorporated in 1934 and is headquartered in Miami Beach, Florida.

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.