Vanguard Group Inc. Boosts Holdings in StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in StepStone Group by 6.9%, acquiring an additional 481,385 shares, bringing their total ownership to approximately 6.40% of the company.
• StepStone Group has received positive ratings from analysts, with an average target price increase to $64.00 and four analysts rating it as a "hold."
• The company recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.28 per share, reflecting a positive change from its previous dividend of $0.24.

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) by 6.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,419,566 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 481,385 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 6.40% of StepStone Group worth $387,524,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its stake 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 valued at $753,000 after acquiring an additional 6,289 shares in the last quarter. 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 valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in StepStone Group by 42.8% during the first quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 23,527 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,229,000 after acquiring an additional 7,053 shares in the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC grew its stake in StepStone Group by 2.7% during the first quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 24,558 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,283,000 after acquiring an additional 641 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets purchased a new position in StepStone Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $558,000. Institutional investors own 55.54% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at StepStone Group

In related news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.28, for a total transaction of $612,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 60,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,676,800. This represents a 14.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jason P. Ment sold 55,608 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 of the company's stock, valued at $2,073,550.05. This represents 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 in the last three months. 16.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

StepStone Group Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of StepStone Group stock traded down $0.0250 during trading on Thursday, reaching $58.5450. The company's stock had a trading volume of 11,116 shares, compared to its average volume of 615,387. StepStone Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $40.07 and a 52-week high of $70.38. The company has a market cap of $6.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.01 and a beta of 1.37. The firm's 50-day moving average is $58.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $56.09.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $237.47 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $238.99 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.48 EPS. StepStone Group's revenue for the quarter was up 95.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current 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 issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 29th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. This is an increase from StepStone Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. StepStone Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -31.17%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on STEP shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Zacks Research cut shares of StepStone Group from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $84.00 price target (up previously from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average 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.