Cetera Investment Advisers Has $287,000 Stock Holdings in StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) by 34.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,495 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,419 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in StepStone Group were worth $287,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in shares of StepStone Group during the first quarter valued at approximately $753,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its position in StepStone Group by 9.8% in the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 5,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC boosted its stake in StepStone Group by 76.2% during the first quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 208,281 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,879,000 after buying an additional 90,052 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in StepStone Group by 40.7% in the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 786,221 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,064,000 after buying an additional 227,483 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC increased its holdings in StepStone Group by 14.0% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $84,000 after buying an additional 196 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at StepStone Group

In related news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 27,697 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.06, for a total value of $1,663,481.82. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 80,000 shares in the company, valued at $4,804,800. This trade represents a 25.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 199,741 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.92, for a total value of $11,968,480.72. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 491,582 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,455,593.44. This represents a 28.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 424,444 shares of company stock worth $25,268,076 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 16.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Zacks Research downgraded shares of StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $84.00 price target (up previously from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Barclays lifted their price objective on StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.00.

StepStone Group Trading Up 0.4%

STEP opened at $58.57 on Thursday. StepStone Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $40.07 and a 1-year high of $70.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.82 billion, a PE ratio of -19.02 and a beta of 1.37. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $58.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $56.09.

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

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. This is a boost from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is currently -31.17%.

StepStone Group Company Profile

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.