Fred Alger Management LLC Sells 63,425 Shares of StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

Key Points

• Fred Alger Management LLC reduced its stake in StepStone Group by 3.9%, selling 63,425 shares and retaining about 1.34% of the company, valued at $81.27 million.
• Multiple large investors increased their positions in StepStone Group during the first quarter, with Vanguard Group Inc. and Price T Rowe Associates Inc. seeing notable increases in their shareholdings.
• StepStone Group announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.28 per share, marking a rise from the previous $0.24, with a yield of 1.8% based on the annualized payout.

Fred Alger Management LLC cut its stake in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) by 3.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,555,936 shares of the company's stock after selling 63,425 shares during the quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC owned about 1.34% of StepStone Group worth $81,267,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of STEP. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position 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 buying an additional 481,385 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in StepStone Group by 7.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,038,665 shares of the company's stock worth $315,400,000 after acquiring an additional 438,790 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 13.2% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,011,015 shares of the company's stock worth $209,495,000 after purchasing an additional 468,745 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in StepStone Group by 2.7% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,580,157 shares of the company's stock valued at $186,992,000 after buying an additional 94,477 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 269.8% in the 1st 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. Institutional investors own 55.54% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

StepStone Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STEP opened at $60.90 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $7.09 billion, a PE ratio of -19.77 and a beta of 1.37. StepStone Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $40.07 and a 1-year high of $70.38. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $59.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $55.93.

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

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The firm 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 dividend of $0.28 per share. This is an increase from StepStone Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 29th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. StepStone Group's payout ratio is -36.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction on Monday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total value of $614,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 50,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,072,000. The trade was a 16.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 67,718 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 423,864 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,965,270.56. The trade was a 13.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 97,718 shares of company stock valued at $5,658,876. Insiders own 16.47% of the company's stock.

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.

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