Quantbot Technologies LP Sells 12,016 Shares of StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

Key Points

• Quantbot Technologies LP reduced its holdings in StepStone Group by 18.7%, selling 12,016 shares and now owns 52,369 shares, valued at approximately $2.735 million.
• Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in StepStone Group by 6.9%, holding a total of 7,419,566 shares valued at about $387.5 million as of the first quarter.
• StepStone Group recently announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.28, representing a yield of 1.9%, set to be paid on September 15th to shareholders of record as of August 29th.

Quantbot Technologies LP lessened its holdings in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) by 18.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 52,369 shares of the company's stock after selling 12,016 shares during the quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP's holdings in StepStone Group were worth $2,735,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in StepStone Group by 77.4% in the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 14,413 shares of the company's stock valued at $753,000 after buying an additional 6,289 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in StepStone Group by 38.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,169 shares of the company's stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 325 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 7,053 shares in the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 24,558 shares of the company's stock worth $1,283,000 after buying an additional 641 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets acquired a new stake in shares of StepStone Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $558,000. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

STEP has been the subject of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target 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. Barclays boosted their price objective on StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, August 8th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $84.00 price objective (up from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered StepStone Group from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $64.00.

Insider Transactions at StepStone Group

In other news, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 199,741 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.92, for a total value of $11,968,480.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 491,582 shares in the company, valued at $29,455,593.44. This trade represents a 28.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jason P. Ment sold 55,608 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.71, for a total transaction of $3,375,961.68. Following the sale, the insider owned 34,155 shares in the company, valued at $2,073,550.05. The trade was a 61.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 422,141 shares of company stock worth $25,129,882. 16.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

StepStone Group Trading Up 5.1%

Shares of STEP traded up $3.00 on Friday, reaching $61.71. 488,487 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 664,116. The stock has a market cap of $7.18 billion, a PE ratio of -20.04 and a beta of 1.37. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $58.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $56.00. StepStone Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $40.07 and a 52-week high of $70.38.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) last issued 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). The company had revenue of $237.47 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $238.99 million. StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 16.07% and a negative net margin of 17.10%.StepStone Group's quarterly revenue was up 95.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.48 earnings per share. 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be given a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. This is a boost from StepStone Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. StepStone Group's payout ratio is currently -31.17%.

About StepStone Group

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.