Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Corp. (NYSE:NCDL) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Corp. (NYSE:NCDL) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the five research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have issued a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $14.0625.

Several analysts have recently issued reports on NCDL shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $13.00 to $12.00 in a research note on Friday, June 12th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending from $15.50 to $14.75 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 18th. 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on 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. Finally, Zacks Research raised Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NCDL. Centurion Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending in the 2nd quarter worth about $3,879,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending by 2.9% in the second quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 442,680 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,498,000 after acquiring an additional 12,646 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending by 23.3% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 147,909 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,881,000 after acquiring an additional 27,970 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending by 28.7% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 152,024 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,934,000 after acquiring an additional 33,918 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lido Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending by 19.9% in the first quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 53,788 shares of the company’s stock valued at $705,000 after acquiring an additional 8,932 shares during the last quarter.

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Stock Performance

NCDL stock opened at $12.36 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $12.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $13.12. The company has a market capitalization of $610.46 million, a P/E ratio of 13.01 and a beta of 0.51. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending has a 52-week low of $11.97 and a 52-week high of $16.18.

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

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 30th will be given a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.7%. Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 151.58%.

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Company Profile

Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending (NYSE:NCDL) is a closed-end management investment company that seeks to provide shareholders with attractive risk-adjusted returns through a diversified portfolio of direct lending instruments. Established in early 2022, NCDL focuses on privately negotiated debt investments in middle-market companies, primarily within the United States. The fund offers investors access to a segment of the credit markets that has historically been less correlated with public debt markets, aiming to capture yield premiums associated with private lending.

The fund’s investment strategy centers on senior secured loans, unitranche financings and selectively structured mezzanine debt.