National Bank of Canada FI Buys 9,188 Shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP)

National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) by 17.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 62,170 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,188 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI owned 0.05% of StepStone Group worth $3,247,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in STEP. Bank of Montreal Can grew its position in StepStone Group by 18.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 7,226 shares of the company’s stock worth $418,000 after buying an additional 1,125 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in StepStone Group by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 172,621 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,991,000 after buying an additional 4,959 shares in the last quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. grew its position in StepStone Group by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 6,866 shares of the company’s stock worth $397,000 after buying an additional 569 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its position in StepStone Group by 17.1% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 131,220 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,596,000 after buying an additional 19,201 shares in the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new position in StepStone Group during the fourth quarter worth about $233,000. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on STEP. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $84.00 target price (up from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Barclays upped their price objective on StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.00.

StepStone Group Trading Down 0.2%

STEP opened at $62.23 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.24 billion, a P/E ratio of -20.20 and a beta of 1.37. StepStone Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $40.07 and a 12-month high of $70.38. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $58.08 and a 200-day moving average price of $56.23.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $237.47 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $238.99 million. StepStone Group had a negative net margin of 17.10% and a positive return on equity of 16.07%. The company’s revenue was up 95.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.48 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 29th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. This is a boost from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -31.17%.

Insider Activity at StepStone Group

In related news, insider Jason P. Ment sold 55,608 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.71, for a total transaction of $3,375,961.68. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 34,155 shares in the company, valued at $2,073,550.05. This represents a 61.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.28, for a total value of $612,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 60,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,676,800. This represents a 14.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 424,444 shares of company stock worth $25,268,076 in the last ninety days. 16.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About StepStone Group

StepStone Group Inc is a private equity and venture capital firm specializing in direct, fund of funds, secondary direct, and secondary indirect investments. For direct investment, it seeks to invest in private debt, venture debt, incubation, mezzanine, distressed/vulture, seed/startup, early venture, mid venture, late venture, emerging growth, later stage, turnaround, growth capital, industry consolidation, recapitalization, buyout investments in mature and middle market companies.