StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Trading 4.3% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)’s share price traded up 4.3% on Wednesday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $48.00 to $62.00. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. StepStone Group traded as high as $61.66 and last traded at $61.85. 993,677 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 46% from the average session volume of 681,206 shares. The stock had previously closed at $59.30.

Several other analysts have also commented on the stock. 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 cut their price objective on 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. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.64.

Insider Transactions at StepStone Group

In other news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,547,091. The trade was a 0.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jason P. Ment sold 800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 90,663 shares in the company, valued at $5,441,593.26. The trade was a 0.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 18.44% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StepStone Group

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in StepStone Group by 269.8% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,962,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $154,748,000 after purchasing an additional 2,161,548 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in StepStone Group by 19.0% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,599,875 shares of the company’s stock worth $324,122,000 after acquiring an additional 895,521 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in StepStone Group during the 4th quarter valued at $46,163,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new stake in StepStone Group in the 4th quarter valued at $32,340,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in StepStone Group by 353.2% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 661,799 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,305,000 after purchasing an additional 515,760 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

StepStone Group Trading Up 2.9%

The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $52.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $57.82. The company has a market cap of $7.08 billion, a P/E ratio of -36.08 and a beta of 1.37.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 22nd. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $231.87 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 66.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that StepStone Group LP will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be given a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -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.