StepStone Group Inc. $STEP Stake Lessened by Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.

Key Points

• Charles Schwab Investment Management reduced its stake in StepStone Group Inc. by 2.7%, now owning approximately 593,436 shares valued at around $30.99 million.
• StepStone Group reported a quarterly earnings per share of $0.40, missing the analysts' expectations of $0.42, while revenue increased 95.4% compared to the same quarter last year.
• The company increased its quarterly dividend from $0.24 to $0.28 per share, representing an annualized yield of 1.9%, with the dividend to be paid on September 15th.

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lowered its holdings in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) by 2.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 593,436 shares of the company's stock after selling 16,183 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned 0.51% of StepStone Group worth $30,995,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in StepStone Group by 19.0% during 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 acquiring an additional 895,521 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in StepStone Group by 353.2% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 661,799 shares of the company's stock valued at $38,305,000 after acquiring an additional 515,760 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in StepStone Group by 6.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,419,566 shares of the company's stock valued at $387,524,000 after acquiring an additional 481,385 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in StepStone Group by 40.7% during the first quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 786,221 shares of the company's stock valued at $41,064,000 after acquiring an additional 227,483 shares during the period. Finally, Granahan Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 48.8% during the fourth quarter. Granahan Investment Management LLC now owns 348,735 shares of the company's stock worth $20,185,000 after purchasing an additional 114,402 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.54% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The stock was 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 owned 60,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,676,800. This represents a 14.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 67,718 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.54, for a total value of $3,828,775.72. Following the sale, the insider owned 423,864 shares of the company's stock, valued at $23,965,270.56. This trade represents a 13.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 422,141 shares of company stock worth $25,129,882 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 16.47% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Zacks Research cut StepStone Group from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Oppenheimer reiterated 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. 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, 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $64.00.

StepStone Group Price Performance

STEP stock traded up $3.00 on Friday, reaching $61.71. The company's stock had a trading volume of 488,487 shares, compared to its average volume of 664,116. The company has a market capitalization of $7.18 billion, a P/E ratio of -20.04 and a beta of 1.37. StepStone Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $40.07 and a 52 week high of $70.38. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $58.42 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.06.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $237.47 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $238.99 million. StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 16.07% and a negative net margin of 17.10%.The business's revenue for the quarter was up 95.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.48 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be given a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. This is a positive change from StepStone Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 29th. StepStone Group's payout ratio is currently -36.36%.

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.