StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Given New $63.00 Price Target at The Goldman Sachs Group

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) had its target price lifted by The Goldman Sachs Group from $57.00 to $63.00 in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 2.26% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on STEP. Oppenheimer set a $67.00 price objective on shares of StepStone Group and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price 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. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $48.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.57.

StepStone Group Price Performance

StepStone Group stock traded up $2.31 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $61.61. 1,197,617 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 681,702. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -36.43 and a beta of 1.37. The business has a 50 day moving average of $52.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $57.82. StepStone Group has a 12 month low of $40.07 and a 12 month high of $70.38.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 22nd. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $295.86 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $231.87 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.33 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 66.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that StepStone Group will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other StepStone Group 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 109,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,547,091. The trade was a 0.82% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jason P. Ment sold 800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.02, for a total transaction of $48,016.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 90,663 shares in the company, valued at $5,441,593.26. This trade represents a 0.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.44% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StepStone Group

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of STEP. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in StepStone Group by 6.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,419,566 shares of the company’s stock worth $387,524,000 after buying an additional 481,385 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in StepStone Group by 7.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,038,665 shares of the company’s stock worth $315,400,000 after buying an additional 438,790 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in StepStone Group by 13.2% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,011,015 shares of the company’s stock worth $209,495,000 after buying an additional 468,745 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in StepStone Group by 2.7% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,580,157 shares of the company’s stock worth $186,992,000 after buying an additional 94,477 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in StepStone Group by 269.8% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,962,826 shares of the company’s stock worth $154,748,000 after buying an additional 2,161,548 shares during the period. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.