Empowered Funds LLC Grows Stock Position 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 boosted its position in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) by 6.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 112,647 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 7,167 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC owned approximately 0.10% of StepStone Group worth $5,884,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of StepStone Group by 6.9% in the first 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. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of StepStone Group by 7.8% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of StepStone Group by 13.2% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,011,015 shares of the company's stock valued at $209,495,000 after purchasing an additional 468,745 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of StepStone Group by 2.7% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,580,157 shares of the company's stock valued at $186,992,000 after purchasing an additional 94,477 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its position in shares of StepStone Group by 269.8% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,962,826 shares of the company's stock valued at $154,748,000 after purchasing an additional 2,161,548 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at StepStone Group

In related news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total transaction of $614,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,072,000. The trade was a 16.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In the last quarter, insiders sold 30,000 shares of company stock worth $1,830,100. 16.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $84.00 price target (up previously from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research note on Monday, August 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered StepStone Group from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $64.00.

StepStone Group Trading Up 3.6%

NASDAQ STEP opened at $63.47 on Friday. StepStone Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $40.07 and a 1-year high of $70.38. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $60.39 and a 200-day moving average of $56.06. The firm has a market cap of $7.39 billion, a PE ratio of -20.61 and a beta of 1.37.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $238.99 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.48 EPS. The company's revenue was up 95.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 29th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. This is a boost from StepStone Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. StepStone Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -36.36%.

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.

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