StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seven analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $35.21.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on STEP shares. TheStreet cut shares of StepStone Group from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $40.00 to $49.00 in a research report on Thursday. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of StepStone Group in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $48.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $28.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday.

Insider Activity at StepStone Group

In other StepStone Group news, Director Thomas Keck sold 3,694 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.47, for a total value of $131,026.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 200,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,120,602.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other StepStone Group news, Director Thomas Keck sold 3,694 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.47, for a total transaction of $131,026.18. Following the sale, the director now owns 200,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,120,602.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder James Lim sold 9,008 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.06, for a total value of $315,820.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,388,746 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $223,989,434.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 91,514 shares of company stock worth $3,233,084 in the last ninety days. 19.89% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of StepStone Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in StepStone Group by 116.7% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,744,564 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,675,000 after purchasing an additional 939,445 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 9.2% in the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,437,768 shares of the company’s stock valued at $141,545,000 after buying an additional 460,189 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new position in StepStone Group during the third quarter valued at about $13,137,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in StepStone Group by 90.6% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 772,921 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,409,000 after buying an additional 367,507 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC grew its holdings in StepStone Group by 210.5% during the third quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC now owns 518,054 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,360,000 after acquiring an additional 351,205 shares during the period. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

StepStone Group Stock Down 2.5 %

STEP stock opened at $36.06 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.07 and a beta of 1.25. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $34.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.37. StepStone Group has a 52-week low of $19.83 and a 52-week high of $38.25.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of ($14.61) million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $142.29 million. As a group, analysts anticipate that StepStone Group will post 1.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.33%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 93.33%.

About StepStone Group

StepStone Group LP. is an investment firm specializing in direct, fund of funds, secondary direct, and secondary indirect investments. For direct investment, it seeks to invest in venture debt, incubation, mezzanine, distressed/vulture, seed/startup, early venture, mid venture, late venture, emerging growth, later stage, turnaround, growth capital, industry consolidation, recapitalization, private equity and buyout investments in mature and middle market companies.