Empowered Funds LLC Raises Holdings in StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

Key Points

• Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in StepStone Group by 6.8% in Q1, now holding 112,647 shares valued at approximately $5.88 million.
• Several hedge funds, including Millennium Management LLC, significantly boosted their positions in StepStone Group, with Millennium increasing by 269.8%.
• StepStone Group announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.28 per share, up from the previous $0.24, with a yield of 1.8%.

Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) by 6.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 112,647 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 7,167 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC owned about 0.10% of StepStone Group worth $5,884,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in STEP. BNP Paribas Financial Markets bought a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the fourth quarter valued at $558,000. Deutsche Bank AG raised its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 56.1% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 55,937 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,238,000 after buying an additional 20,108 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 23.0% in the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 29,998 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,737,000 after buying an additional 5,600 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 37,364 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,163,000 after buying an additional 3,336 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 325,404 shares of the company's stock valued at $18,834,000 after buying an additional 6,028 shares during the period. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

StepStone Group Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:STEP traded up $0.04 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $61.14. The stock had a trading volume of 162,187 shares, compared to its average volume of 599,648. StepStone Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $40.07 and a 12 month high of $70.38. The company has a market capitalization of $7.12 billion, a PE ratio of -19.92 and a beta of 1.37. The firm's fifty day moving average is $60.62 and its 200 day moving average is $56.09.

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

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 29th were given a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is a boost from StepStone Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 29th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. StepStone Group's dividend payout ratio is -36.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total transaction 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 $3,072,000. This trade represents a 16.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.26, for a total value of $63,260.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,020 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,392,985.20. This trade represents a 4.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,893,360. 16.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on STEP. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Barclays boosted their price objective 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. Zacks Research lowered StepStone Group from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Oppenheimer restated 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $64.00.

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.