Independent Advisor Alliance Takes $813,000 Position in StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

Key Points

• Independent Advisor Alliance has acquired 15,564 shares of StepStone Group Inc., valued at approximately $813,000, during the first quarter.
• StepStone Group recently increased its quarterly dividend from $0.24 to $0.28 per share, representing an annualized payout of $1.12 and a dividend yield of 1.8%.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for StepStone Group, with Goldman Sachs setting a new price objective of $63.00 and Oppenheimer rating the stock as "outperform" with a target of $84.00.

Independent Advisor Alliance bought a new position in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 15,564 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $813,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in StepStone Group in the first quarter valued at approximately $17,018,000. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in StepStone Group during the first quarter worth $611,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 468,745 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 17.3% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 62,170 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,247,000 after buying an additional 9,188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of StepStone Group by 6.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,419,566 shares of the company's stock worth $387,524,000 after acquiring an additional 481,385 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Jason P. Ment sold 55,608 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.71, for a total value of $3,375,961.68. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 34,155 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,073,550.05. This trade represents a 61.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 67,718 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.54, for a total transaction of $3,828,775.72. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 423,864 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,965,270.56. This trade represents a 13.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 424,444 shares of company stock valued at $25,268,076 over the last ninety days. 16.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

StepStone Group Stock Down 1.8%

StepStone Group stock traded down $1.09 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $60.37. 210,121 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 612,269. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $58.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.09. StepStone Group Inc. has a one year low of $40.07 and a one year high of $70.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.03 billion, a PE ratio of -19.63 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 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $237.47 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $238.99 million. StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 16.07% and a negative net margin of 17.10%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 95.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.48 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. This is a positive change from StepStone Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. StepStone Group's dividend payout ratio is currently -31.17%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on STEP shares. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Barclays lifted 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. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $84.00 price target (up from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target 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.