Strs Ohio Acquires Shares of 14,500 StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

Key Points

• Strs Ohio has invested approximately $757,000 in StepStone Group Inc. by acquiring 14,500 shares during the first quarter.
• Several institutional investors, including Russell Investments Group Ltd., also increased their stakes in StepStone Group, with total institutional ownership currently at 55.54%.
• Analysts have mixed ratings on StepStone Group, with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a target price of $66.86, reflecting a range of recent upgrades and downgrades from various firms.

Strs Ohio bought a new position in shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 14,500 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $757,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of StepStone Group during the first quarter worth about $35,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of StepStone Group by 38.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,169 shares of the company's stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares in the last quarter. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of StepStone Group during the fourth quarter worth about $65,000. CWM LLC increased its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in StepStone Group by 943.5% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,847 shares of the company's stock worth $96,000 after purchasing an additional 1,670 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on STEP. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $84.00 price objective (up from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Barclays boosted 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. Evercore ISI boosted 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. Zacks Research cut shares of StepStone Group from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of StepStone Group from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $64.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $66.86.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

Shares of STEP stock traded up $1.08 on Tuesday, hitting $67.98. 32,908 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 620,470. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -22.06 and a beta of 1.37. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $60.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.34. StepStone Group Inc. has a one year low of $40.07 and a one year high of $70.38.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) last posted 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). StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 16.07% and a negative net margin of 17.10%.The company had revenue of $237.47 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $238.99 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.48 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 95.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 29th were given 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 of this dividend was Friday, August 29th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. StepStone Group's dividend payout ratio is -36.36%.

Insider Transactions at StepStone Group

In related news, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.26, for a total transaction of $63,260.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,020 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,392,985.20. This trade represents a 4.34% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total transaction of $614,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 50,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,893,360. 16.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.