Scott Hart Sells 10,000 Shares of StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Stock

StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) CEO Scott Hart sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.70, for a total value of $647,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 40,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,588,000. This represents a 20.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

StepStone Group Stock Up 1.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:STEP opened at $66.60 on Tuesday. StepStone Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $40.07 and a 12-month high of $70.38. The stock has a market cap of $7.75 billion, a PE ratio of -21.62 and a beta of 1.37. The business has a 50 day moving average of $61.44 and a 200-day moving average of $56.85.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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). StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 16.07% and a negative net margin of 17.10%.The firm had revenue of $237.47 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $238.99 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.48 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 95.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 29th were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is a boost from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 29th. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently -36.36%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StepStone Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Osaic Holdings Inc. lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 368.0% during the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 2,223 shares of the company’s stock worth $118,000 after purchasing an additional 1,748 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new stake in StepStone Group during the second quarter worth $2,161,000. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP bought a new stake in StepStone Group during the second quarter worth $2,779,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 7.5% during the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 224,974 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,486,000 after purchasing an additional 15,746 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 535.0% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 8,808 shares of the company’s stock worth $489,000 after purchasing an additional 7,421 shares during the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

STEP has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $64.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $84.00 price target (up from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Zacks Research cut StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.86.

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.