OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp Invests $1.11 Million in StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

Key Points

• OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp has acquired 21,300 shares of StepStone Group Inc. valued at approximately $1,112,000 in the first quarter.
• StepStone Group reported a $0.40 EPS for the last quarter, missing analysts' expectations of $0.42, with a 95.4% increase in revenue year-over-year.
• The company announced an increase in its quarterly dividend from $0.24 to $0.28, representing a 1.8% yield, to be paid on September 15th.

OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp acquired a new position in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 21,300 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,112,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in STEP. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 353.2% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in StepStone Group by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,419,566 shares of the company's stock valued at $387,524,000 after purchasing an additional 481,385 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 13.2% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,011,015 shares of the company's stock valued at $209,495,000 after acquiring an additional 468,745 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of StepStone Group by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,038,665 shares of the company's stock valued at $315,400,000 after purchasing an additional 438,790 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in StepStone Group in the 1st quarter worth approximately $17,018,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.54% of the company's stock.

StepStone Group Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of STEP stock traded down $0.75 on Friday, reaching $60.90. 435,992 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 611,361. StepStone Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $40.07 and a twelve month high of $70.38. The business's 50 day moving average price is $59.93 and its 200 day moving average price is $56.01. The company has a market capitalization of $7.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.77 and a beta of 1.37.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $237.47 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $238.99 million. StepStone Group had a negative net margin of 17.10% and a positive return on equity of 16.07%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 95.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.48 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be issued a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. This is a positive change from StepStone Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. StepStone Group's dividend payout ratio is currently -36.36%.

Insider Transactions at StepStone Group

In other news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total transaction of $614,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,072,000. The trade was a 16.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 67,718 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.54, for a total transaction of $3,828,775.72. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 423,864 shares of the company's stock, valued at $23,965,270.56. This trade represents a 13.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 97,718 shares of company stock valued at $5,658,876. 16.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on STEP shares. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $84.00 price target (up from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Zacks Research lowered StepStone Group from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. 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 report on Thursday, July 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $64.00.

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.