StepStone Group Inc. $STEP Shares Acquired by Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD

Key Points

• Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in StepStone Group by 7.8%, bringing its total ownership to approximately 5.21% valued at $315.4 million.
• Oppenheimer set a new target price of $84.00 for StepStone Group, maintaining an "outperform" rating, whereas Zacks Research downgraded its rating from "strong-buy" to "hold."
• StepStone Group declared a quarterly dividend of $0.28 per share, an increase from the previous dividend of $0.24, with a dividend yield of 1.8%.

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) by 7.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,038,665 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 438,790 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned approximately 5.21% of StepStone Group worth $315,400,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of STEP. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in StepStone Group by 353.2% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 661,799 shares of the company's stock worth $38,305,000 after acquiring an additional 515,760 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in StepStone Group by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,419,566 shares of the company's stock worth $387,524,000 after acquiring an additional 481,385 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of StepStone Group by 13.2% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,011,015 shares of the company's stock valued at $209,495,000 after purchasing an additional 468,745 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of StepStone Group in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $17,018,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of StepStone Group by 40.7% in the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 786,221 shares of the company's stock valued at $41,064,000 after purchasing an additional 227,483 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at StepStone Group

In other news, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 67,718 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.54, for a total value of $3,828,775.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 423,864 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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 SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total value of $614,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 50,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,072,000. The trade was a 16.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 97,718 shares of company stock valued at $5,658,876. Company insiders own 16.47% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on STEP shares. Evercore ISI upped their target price on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $84.00 target price (up from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Zacks Research lowered StepStone Group from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, August 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $64.00.

StepStone Group Trading Down 0.5%

STEP traded down $0.34 during trading on Friday, reaching $62.25. 65,549 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 612,540. The stock has a market cap of $7.25 billion, a P/E ratio of -20.22 and a beta of 1.37. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $59.15 and a 200 day moving average of $56.02. 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 data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $237.47 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.48 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. This is a positive change from StepStone Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. StepStone Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -36.36%.

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.