19,029 Shares in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) Purchased by Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

Key Points

• Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired 19,029 shares of StepStone Group Inc. in the first quarter, totaling approximately $994,000 as reported in a recent 13F filing.
• StepStone Group has recently seen increased interest from institutional investors, with notable increases in holdings from firms such as GAMMA Investing LLC and CWM LLC.
• Wall Street analysts have mixed views on StepStone Group, with price targets ranging from $51.00 to $81.00, and a consensus rating of "Hold".

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 19,029 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $994,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 19.0% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,599,875 shares of the company's stock valued at $324,122,000 after purchasing an additional 895,521 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in StepStone Group during the fourth quarter worth $46,163,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new position in StepStone Group in the fourth quarter valued at $32,340,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in StepStone Group by 353.2% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 661,799 shares of the company's stock valued at $38,305,000 after purchasing an additional 515,760 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in StepStone Group by 11.5% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,542,270 shares of the company's stock valued at $205,027,000 after buying an additional 366,154 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.54% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 27,697 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.06, for a total value of $1,663,481.82. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 80,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,804,800. The trade was a 25.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 199,741 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.92, for a total transaction of $11,968,480.72. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 491,582 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,455,593.44. This represents a 28.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 426,144 shares of company stock valued at $25,370,101. 16.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on STEP shares. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on StepStone Group from $66.00 to $51.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Evercore ISI raised 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 boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on StepStone Group from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $63.57.

StepStone Group Trading Up 2.9%

NASDAQ:STEP traded up $1.64 on Friday, hitting $59.09. The company's stock had a trading volume of 380,007 shares, compared to its average volume of 604,922. 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 $6.88 billion, a P/E ratio of -24.72 and a beta of 1.37. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $57.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.33.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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 15.28% and a positive return on equity of 15.21%. The business had revenue of $237.47 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $238.99 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.48 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 95.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

StepStone Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th were given a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. StepStone Group's dividend payout ratio is presently -40.17%.

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.