Public Sector Pension Investment Board Buys 51,685 Shares of StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

Key Points

• The Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its stake in StepStone Group Inc. by 32.8% in the first quarter, acquiring an additional 51,685 shares, bringing its total ownership to 209,228 shares valued at approximately $10.93 million.
• Multiple research firms have upgraded their price targets for StepStone Group, with Evercore ISI raising it from $56.00 to $61.00 and Oppenheimer setting a target of $84.00, reflecting positive analyst sentiment toward the stock.
• StepStone Group recently announced an increase in its quarterly dividend from $0.24 to $0.28, payable on September 15th, 2023, indicating a commitment to returning value to its shareholders.

Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its stake in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) by 32.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 209,228 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 51,685 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board owned 0.18% of StepStone Group worth $10,928,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in STEP. Versant Capital Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of StepStone Group during the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new stake in StepStone Group during the fourth quarter valued at about $65,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in StepStone Group by 38.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,169 shares of the company's stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 325 shares during the period. CWM LLC increased its position in StepStone Group by 14.0% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,600 shares of the company's stock worth $84,000 after buying an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vicus Capital raised its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 9.8% in the first quarter. Vicus Capital now owns 4,020 shares of the company's stock worth $210,000 after buying an additional 359 shares during the period. 55.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at StepStone Group

In other news, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 199,741 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 27,697 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.06, for a total transaction of $1,663,481.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 80,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,804,800. This trade represents a 25.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 424,444 shares of company stock valued at $25,268,076. Insiders own 16.47% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on STEP shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. 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, August 8th. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and set a $84.00 price objective (up from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $64.00.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

STEP traded down $1.09 during trading on Monday, reaching $60.37. 210,121 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 612,269. The company has a market cap of $7.03 billion, a P/E ratio of -19.63 and a beta of 1.37. StepStone Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $40.07 and a 12-month high of $70.38. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.09.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results 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). The company had revenue of $237.47 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $238.99 million. StepStone Group had a negative net margin of 17.10% and a positive return on equity of 16.07%. The business's revenue was up 95.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.48 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. This is a boost from StepStone Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. StepStone Group's dividend payout ratio is currently -31.17%.

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.