StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) have earned an average rating of “Hold” from the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $64.00.

STEP has been the subject of several recent research reports. Zacks Research lowered shares of StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $84.00 price objective (up previously from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th.

Insider Activity at StepStone Group

In related news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 trade represents a 14.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 67,718 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.54, for a total transaction of $3,828,775.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 423,864 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,965,270.56. This trade represents a 13.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 87,718 shares of company stock worth $5,044,476. 16.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of StepStone Group

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in StepStone Group by 6.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,419,566 shares of the company’s stock valued at $387,524,000 after acquiring an additional 481,385 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in StepStone Group by 7.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,038,665 shares of the company’s stock worth $315,400,000 after purchasing an additional 438,790 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in StepStone Group by 0.8% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,043,640 shares of the company’s stock worth $224,422,000 after purchasing an additional 32,625 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in StepStone Group by 2.7% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,580,157 shares of the company’s stock worth $186,992,000 after purchasing an additional 94,477 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in StepStone Group by 269.8% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,962,826 shares of the company’s stock worth $154,748,000 after purchasing an additional 2,161,548 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ STEP opened at $62.66 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $58.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.97. StepStone Group has a one year low of $40.07 and a one year high of $70.38. The firm has a market cap of $7.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -20.34 and a beta of 1.37.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $237.47 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $238.99 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.48 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 95.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that StepStone Group will post 1.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The company 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 $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. This is a positive change from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is -31.17%.

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.