StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Given New $69.00 Price Target at Barclays

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) had its price objective reduced by Barclays from $70.00 to $69.00 in a research note released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $64.00 to $83.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 17th. Zacks Research lowered shares of StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $61.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $73.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StepStone Group in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, StepStone Group presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $74.29.

StepStone Group Trading Down 1.8%

STEP stock traded down $1.10 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $61.14. 1,354,033 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 554,842. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $63.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $59.51. The company has a market capitalization of $7.12 billion, a PE ratio of -7.64 and a beta of 1.36. StepStone Group has a twelve month low of $40.07 and a twelve month high of $70.38.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $282.34 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $272.15 million. StepStone Group had a negative net margin of 40.06% and a positive return on equity of 18.31%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 35.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.45 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that StepStone Group will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current year.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 28th will be given a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 28th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -36.36%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.26, for a total transaction of $63,260.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,020 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,392,985.20. The trade was a 4.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total value of $614,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 50,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,072,000. This represents a 16.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,968,060. 16.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of STEP. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 269.8% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,962,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $154,748,000 after purchasing an additional 2,161,548 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in StepStone Group by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,419,566 shares of the company’s stock valued at $387,524,000 after buying an additional 481,385 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in StepStone Group by 13.2% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,011,015 shares of the company’s stock valued at $209,495,000 after buying an additional 468,745 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of StepStone Group by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,038,665 shares of the company’s stock worth $315,400,000 after buying an additional 438,790 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the 1st quarter worth approximately $17,018,000. Institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

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.