StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) Receives $74.29 Average PT from Brokerages

Shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $74.2857.

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Zacks Research cut shares of StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StepStone Group in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on StepStone Group in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $74.00 price target for the company. Barclays cut their price target on StepStone Group from $70.00 to $69.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on StepStone Group from $61.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Jose A. Fernandez sold 70,404 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.41, for a total value of $4,323,509.64. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 140,806 shares in the company, valued at $8,646,896.46. The trade was a 33.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 11th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,392,985.20. The trade was a 4.34% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 171,806 shares of company stock valued at $10,680,214 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 16.47% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StepStone Group

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its position in StepStone Group by 34.8% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 5,495 shares of the company’s stock worth $287,000 after buying an additional 1,419 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 20.6% in the first quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 32,441 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,694,000 after acquiring an additional 5,533 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 during the period. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 17.3% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 62,170 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,247,000 after acquiring an additional 9,188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 13.2% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,011,015 shares of the company’s stock worth $209,495,000 after purchasing an additional 468,745 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

StepStone Group Price Performance

STEP stock opened at $62.85 on Friday. StepStone Group has a 1-year low of $40.07 and a 1-year high of $68.40. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $60.66. The company has a market capitalization of $7.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.86 and a beta of 1.44.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.05. StepStone Group had a negative net margin of 40.06% and a positive return on equity of 21.53%. The firm had revenue of $282.34 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $272.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.45 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that StepStone Group will post 1.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 28th will be given a dividend of $0.28 per share. 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 -14.00%.

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.