StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) Shares Bought by Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) by 42.8% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 23,527 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,053 shares during the quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in StepStone Group were worth $1,229,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of STEP. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in StepStone Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Versant Capital Management Inc acquired a new stake in StepStone Group in the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. IFP Advisors Inc acquired a new stake in StepStone Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Amundi boosted its stake in StepStone Group by 26.7% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in StepStone Group by 444.4% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 969 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,000 after acquiring an additional 791 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

STEP has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $66.00 to $51.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Barclays set a $62.00 price target on shares of StepStone Group and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Oppenheimer set a $67.00 price target on shares of StepStone Group and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.57.

StepStone Group Price Performance

Shares of StepStone Group stock opened at $56.38 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $53.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $57.18. StepStone Group LP has a 1 year low of $40.07 and a 1 year high of $70.38. The stock has a market cap of $6.56 billion, a PE ratio of -33.36 and a beta of 1.40.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 22nd. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.24. StepStone Group had a negative net margin of 11.29% and a positive return on equity of 12.04%. The firm had revenue of $295.86 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.87 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 66.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that StepStone Group LP will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -40.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 51,377 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.90, for a total transaction of $3,077,482.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 196,423 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,765,737.70. This trade represents a 20.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jason P. Ment sold 800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.02, for a total transaction of $48,016.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 90,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,441,593.26. This trade represents a 0.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 338,426 shares of company stock valued at $20,325,626 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 18.44% 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.