Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Has $315.40 Million Stake in StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

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 boosted its stake in shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) by 7.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,038,665 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 438,790 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned approximately 5.21% of StepStone Group worth $315,400,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in StepStone Group by 77.4% during the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 14,413 shares of the company's stock worth $753,000 after acquiring an additional 6,289 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 38.5% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,169 shares of the company's stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 325 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 42.8% in the 1st quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 23,527 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,229,000 after purchasing an additional 7,053 shares during the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 24,558 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,283,000 after purchasing an additional 641 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets bought a new position in shares of StepStone Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $558,000. Institutional investors own 55.54% of the company's stock.

StepStone Group Stock Down 0.0%

StepStone Group stock traded down $0.02 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $62.64. 409,614 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 614,885. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $55.97. StepStone Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $40.07 and a 52 week high of $70.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.29 billion, a PE ratio of -20.34 and a beta of 1.37.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $237.47 million for 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 quarterly revenue was up 95.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.48 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is an increase from StepStone Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 29th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. StepStone Group's dividend payout ratio is -31.17%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on STEP. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Barclays raised their target price 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 lowered shares of StepStone Group from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $84.00 price objective (up previously from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $64.00.

Insider Activity at StepStone Group

In other StepStone Group news, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 67,718 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.54, for a total transaction of $3,828,775.72. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 423,864 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,965,270.56. This trade represents a 13.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total transaction of $614,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,072,000. This trade represents a 16.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 97,718 shares of company stock worth $5,658,876 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 16.47% of the company's stock.

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.