StepStone Group Inc. $STEP Shares Bought by KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS grew its holdings in shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) by 12.7% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 14,200 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,600 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS’s holdings in StepStone Group were worth $788,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in STEP. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in StepStone Group by 38.5% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,169 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its position in StepStone Group by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 36,563 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,909,000 after acquiring an additional 626 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its position in StepStone Group by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 47,924 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,503,000 after acquiring an additional 1,245 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in StepStone Group by 77.4% during the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 14,413 shares of the company’s stock worth $753,000 after acquiring an additional 6,289 shares during the period. Finally, Amalgamated Bank boosted its position in StepStone Group by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 18,808 shares of the company’s stock worth $982,000 after acquiring an additional 364 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on STEP. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on StepStone Group from $84.00 to $83.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Zacks Research downgraded StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $64.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, StepStone Group has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $69.57.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.70, for a total transaction of $647,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 40,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,588,000. The trade was a 20.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.26, for a total value of $63,260.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,020 shares in the company, valued at $1,392,985.20. This trade represents a 4.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 31,000 shares of company stock worth $1,937,460 over the last ninety days. 16.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

StepStone Group Stock Down 5.4%

Shares of StepStone Group stock opened at $61.80 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $62.79 and its 200-day moving average is $57.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.19 billion, a PE ratio of -20.06 and a beta of 1.37. StepStone Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $40.07 and a 12-month high of $70.38.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $237.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $238.99 million. StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 16.07% and a negative net margin of 17.10%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 95.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.48 earnings per share. Analysts expect that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 29th were given a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. This is a boost from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 29th. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is presently -36.36%.

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.