HighTower Advisors LLC Cuts Stake in StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

Key Points

• HighTower Advisors LLC reduced its stake in StepStone Group Inc. by 17.5% during Q1, now holding 41,631 shares valued at $2.17 million.
• Multiple institutional investors, including Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group and Harbor Capital Advisors, have increased their holdings in StepStone Group, indicating positive investor sentiment.
• StepStone recently announced a quarterly dividend increase from $0.24 to $0.28 per share, signaling financial stability amidst a reported EPS miss of $0.40 against a consensus of $0.42.

HighTower Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) by 17.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 41,631 shares of the company's stock after selling 8,854 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC's holdings in StepStone Group were worth $2,174,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Versant Capital Management Inc bought a new stake in StepStone Group in the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the 4th quarter valued at $65,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 38.5% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,169 shares of the company's stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 325 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 14.0% during the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,600 shares of the company's stock valued at $84,000 after acquiring an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vicus Capital boosted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 9.8% during the 1st quarter. Vicus Capital now owns 4,020 shares of the company's stock valued at $210,000 after acquiring an additional 359 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insider Transactions at StepStone Group

In other news, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 67,718 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.54, for a total value of $3,828,775.72. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 423,864 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $23,965,270.56. The trade was a 13.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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. This trade represents a 16.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 97,718 shares of company stock worth $5,658,876 over the last ninety days. 16.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

StepStone Group Trading Up 1.0%

STEP stock traded up $0.60 during trading on Thursday, reaching $63.24. 212,519 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 612,382. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $58.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $56.01. StepStone Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $40.07 and a 1 year high of $70.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -20.52 and a beta of 1.37.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) last issued 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). StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 16.07% and a negative net margin of 17.10%.The firm had revenue of $237.47 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $238.99 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.48 earnings per share. StepStone Group's revenue for the quarter was up 95.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 EPS 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 paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. StepStone Group's payout ratio is presently -31.17%.

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.