Invesco Ltd. Buys 468,745 Shares of StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) by 13.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,011,015 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 468,745 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. owned about 3.46% of StepStone Group worth $209,495,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

StepStone Group Price Performance

NASDAQ:STEP traded down $0.99 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $60.47. 161,590 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 612,233. The company has a market capitalization of $7.04 billion, a P/E ratio of -19.69 and a beta of 1.37. StepStone Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $40.07 and a 1-year high of $70.38. The business has a 50 day moving average of $58.14 and a 200 day moving average of $56.09.

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

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other StepStone Group news, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 67,718 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.54, for a total transaction of $3,828,775.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 423,864 shares in the company, valued at $23,965,270.56. This represents a 13.78% 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 on 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 sale, the insider owned 34,155 shares of the company's stock, 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. Insiders sold 424,444 shares of company stock worth $25,268,076 over the last three months. Insiders own 16.47% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

STEP has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays upped their price objective on StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. 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. The Goldman Sachs Group upped 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. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $84.00 price objective (up previously from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $64.00.

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.