StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seven ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $35.21.

Several research firms recently weighed in on STEP. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $49.00 in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of StepStone Group in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $48.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $28.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th.

StepStone Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STEP opened at $35.82 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.80 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $34.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.48. StepStone Group has a 1 year low of $19.83 and a 1 year high of $38.25.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.12. The business had revenue of ($14.61) million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $142.29 million. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that StepStone Group will post 1.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is 93.33%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Thomas Keck sold 24,241 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.10, for a total value of $850,859.10. Following the sale, the director now owns 306,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,758,465.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Thomas Keck sold 24,241 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.10, for a total value of $850,859.10. Following the sale, the director now owns 306,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,758,465.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder James Lim sold 9,008 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.06, for a total transaction of $315,820.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,388,746 shares in the company, valued at approximately $223,989,434.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 91,514 shares of company stock valued at $3,233,084 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 19.89% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of StepStone Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its holdings in StepStone Group by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,948,665 shares of the company’s stock worth $105,385,000 after acquiring an additional 46,860 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in StepStone Group by 74.3% during the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 50,099 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,791,000 after acquiring an additional 21,354 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in StepStone Group by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,270,144 shares of the company’s stock worth $167,749,000 after acquiring an additional 90,974 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in StepStone Group by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,994,497 shares of the company’s stock worth $222,635,000 after acquiring an additional 627,059 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in StepStone Group by 26.1% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 340,180 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,829,000 after acquiring an additional 70,315 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

About StepStone Group

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