StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) Receives $66.86 Consensus PT from Analysts

Shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $66.8571.

STEP has been the topic of several research reports. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $84.00 target price (up previously from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $64.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Zacks Research downgraded StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th.

StepStone Group Trading Up 0.7%

StepStone Group stock opened at $67.35 on Friday. StepStone Group has a 12 month low of $40.07 and a 12 month high of $70.38. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $61.14 and its 200-day moving average is $56.41. The company has a market capitalization of $7.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -21.87 and a beta of 1.37.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its 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 firm had revenue of $237.47 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $238.99 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.48 EPS. StepStone Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 95.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that StepStone Group will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 29th were given a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is an increase from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 29th. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -36.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total transaction of $614,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,072,000. This represents a 16.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.26, for a total value of $63,260.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,020 shares in the company, valued at $1,392,985.20. This represents a 4.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 31,000 shares of company stock worth $1,893,360 in the last three months. 16.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StepStone Group

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 24,785 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,376,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank boosted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 22,017 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,150,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Cim LLC boosted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Cim LLC now owns 32,066 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,675,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 38.5% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,169 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 325 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

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.