Bank of New York Mellon Corp Sells 272,581 Shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp cut its position in shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) by 30.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 634,832 shares of the company's stock after selling 272,581 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 0.55% of StepStone Group worth $33,157,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of STEP. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of StepStone Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Versant Capital Management Inc bought a new stake in StepStone Group in the first quarter valued at $35,000. Amundi grew its position in StepStone Group by 26.7% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 730 shares of the company's stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 154 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in StepStone Group by 444.4% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 969 shares of the company's stock valued at $56,000 after acquiring an additional 791 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in StepStone Group by 38.5% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,169 shares of the company's stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares during the period. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other StepStone Group news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.29, for a total transaction of $602,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 70,000 shares in the company, valued at $4,220,300. This trade represents a 12.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 67,718 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.54, for a total value of $3,828,775.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 423,864 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,965,270.56. This represents a 13.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 416,144 shares of company stock worth $24,757,301. Corporate insiders own 18.44% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on STEP shares. Evercore ISI increased their target price on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on StepStone Group from $66.00 to $51.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Barclays set a $62.00 price objective on StepStone Group and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $63.43.

StepStone Group Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of STEP stock traded down $0.43 during trading on Friday, hitting $62.81. The company's stock had a trading volume of 601,024 shares, compared to its average volume of 622,143. The company has a market cap of $7.31 billion, a PE ratio of -26.28 and a beta of 1.36. The business has a fifty day moving average of $57.46 and a 200-day moving average of $56.33. StepStone Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $40.07 and a 52 week high of $70.38.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 22nd. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.24. StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 15.21% and a negative net margin of 15.28%. The business had revenue of $295.86 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $231.87 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.33 earnings per share. StepStone Group's revenue was up 66.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th were given a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.53%. StepStone Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -40.17%.

StepStone Group 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.