Vanguard Group Inc. Acquires 296,378 Shares of StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 7,721,468 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 296,378 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.07% of StepStone Group worth $504,289,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. CWM LLC raised its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 14.4% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,860 shares of the company’s stock worth $121,000 after acquiring an additional 234 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of StepStone Group by 35.5% during the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 916 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 22,143 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,229,000 after purchasing an additional 397 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 14,864 shares of the company’s stock worth $825,000 after purchasing an additional 451 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in StepStone Group by 9.7% during the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 6,030 shares of the company’s stock worth $335,000 after buying an additional 535 shares during the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ STEP opened at $46.55 on Thursday. StepStone Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $40.07 and a fifty-two week high of $77.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.55 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.71 and a beta of 1.32. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $65.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $63.59.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $241.13 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $363.92 million. StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 31.44% and a negative net margin of 30.66%.StepStone Group’s quarterly revenue was up 102.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.44 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current year.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 27th will be given a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 27th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is -16.14%.

Insider Transactions at StepStone Group

In related news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.52, for a total value of $725,200.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 74,214 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.14, for a total value of $4,908,513.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 122,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,082,903.26. The trade was a 37.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 212,052 shares of company stock worth $14,096,290 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 16.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

STEP has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Oppenheimer decreased their price target on StepStone Group from $105.00 to $104.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Evercore set a $73.00 target price on shares of StepStone Group in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StepStone Group in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Zacks Research downgraded shares of StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on StepStone Group from $84.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, StepStone Group has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $80.57.

StepStone Group Profile

StepStone Group is a global private markets investment firm that provides specialized investment solutions across private equity, private credit and real assets. The firm offers customized portfolios, secondary interests, direct co-investments and tailored advisory services to institutional investors worldwide. StepStone’s integrated research and data analytics platform supports its investment teams in sourcing opportunities and monitoring portfolio companies.

Founded in 2007 as an independent private markets specialist, the company has grown its presence through both organic expansion and strategic partnerships.