Independent Advisor Alliance Acquires New Position in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ: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 purchased a new stake in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 15,564 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $813,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in StepStone Group by 77.4% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 14,413 shares of the company's stock worth $753,000 after purchasing an additional 6,289 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 38.5% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,169 shares of the company's stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 42.8% in the first quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 23,527 shares of the company's stock worth $1,229,000 after acquiring an additional 7,053 shares during the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 2.7% in the first quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 24,558 shares of the company's stock worth $1,283,000 after acquiring an additional 641 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets bought a new position in shares of StepStone Group in the fourth quarter worth about $558,000. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at StepStone Group

In other news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.28, for a total transaction of $612,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 60,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,676,800. The trade was a 14.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 67,718 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.54, for a total value of $3,828,775.72. Following the sale, the insider owned 423,864 shares in the company, valued at $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. Insiders have sold 424,444 shares of company stock worth $25,268,076 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 16.47% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

STEP has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays increased their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, August 8th. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $84.00 target price (up previously from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a report on Monday, August 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped 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. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $64.00.

StepStone Group Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of STEP traded down $0.77 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $61.46. The stock had a trading volume of 770,963 shares, compared to its average volume of 596,741. StepStone Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $40.07 and a 12 month high of $70.38. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $58.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.15. The company has a market capitalization of $7.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.95 and a beta of 1.37.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 quarter last year, the business posted $0.48 earnings per share. StepStone Group's revenue was up 95.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 is a boost 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -36.36%.

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.