StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Shares Up 4.3% Following Analyst Upgrade

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)’s share price was up 4.3% during trading on Wednesday after The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on the stock from $57.00 to $63.00. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. StepStone Group traded as high as $61.66 and last traded at $61.85. Approximately 993,677 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 46% from the average daily volume of 681,206 shares. The stock had previously closed at $59.30.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on STEP. Oppenheimer set a $67.00 price target on shares of StepStone Group and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $66.00 to $51.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Barclays set a $62.00 price objective on StepStone Group and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on StepStone Group from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.57.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total transaction of $54,009.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 109,100 shares in the company, valued at $6,547,091. The trade was a 0.82% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jason P. Ment sold 55,608 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.71, for a total transaction of $3,375,961.68. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 34,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,073,550.05. This trade represents a 61.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 87,308 shares of company stock valued at $5,279,663. 18.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StepStone Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in STEP. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 368.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 112,019 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,366,000 after purchasing an additional 88,095 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of StepStone Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $388,000. Cibc World Markets Corp purchased a new stake in StepStone Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $355,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of StepStone Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $941,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the 4th quarter valued at $331,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

StepStone Group Trading Down 1.9%

The company has a market capitalization of $6.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -34.98 and a beta of 1.37. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $52.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.76.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 22nd. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $295.86 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.87 million. StepStone Group had a negative net margin of 11.29% and a positive return on equity of 12.04%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 66.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.33 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that StepStone Group LP will post 1.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -40.17%.

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.