StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at BMO Capital Markets

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) was upgraded by BMO Capital Markets to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $64.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $84.00 target price (up from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Zacks Research lowered StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. One 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 given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $68.71.

StepStone Group Price Performance

NASDAQ:STEP opened at $66.96 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $61.76 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.11. StepStone Group has a 12 month low of $40.07 and a 12 month high of $70.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.80 billion, a PE ratio of -21.74 and a beta of 1.37.

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). StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 16.07% and a negative net margin of 17.10%.The business had revenue of $237.47 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $238.99 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.48 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 95.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that StepStone Group will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other StepStone Group news, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,020 shares in the company, valued at $1,392,985.20. The trade was a 4.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total value of $614,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,072,000. The trade was a 16.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 41,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,540,360. 16.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StepStone Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 77.4% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 14,413 shares of the company’s stock worth $753,000 after buying an additional 6,289 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 38.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,169 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after buying an additional 325 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in shares of 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. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 42.8% during the first quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 23,527 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,229,000 after buying an additional 7,053 shares during the period. Finally, Yousif Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 2.7% during the first quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 24,558 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,283,000 after buying an additional 641 shares during the period. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

StepStone Group Company Profile

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.