Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Acquires 6,289 Shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) by 77.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 14,413 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 6,289 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.'s holdings in StepStone Group were worth $753,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Versant Capital Management Inc acquired a new position in StepStone Group in the first quarter valued at about $35,000. IFP Advisors Inc acquired a new position in StepStone Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. Amundi raised its stake in StepStone Group by 26.7% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 730 shares of the company's stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in StepStone Group by 444.4% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 969 shares of the company's stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 791 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.54% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on STEP shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on StepStone Group from $66.00 to $51.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Barclays set a $62.00 target price on StepStone Group and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Oppenheimer set a $67.00 target price on StepStone Group and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $62.57.

Insider Activity at StepStone Group

In other StepStone Group news, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 67,718 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.54, for a total transaction of $3,828,775.72. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 423,864 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,965,270.56. This represents a 13.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Jason P. Ment sold 55,608 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.71, for a total value of $3,375,961.68. Following the transaction, the insider owned 34,155 shares in the company, valued at $2,073,550.05. The trade was a 61.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 406,144 shares of company stock worth $24,154,401 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 18.44% of the company's stock.

StepStone Group Trading Up 2.3%

NASDAQ STEP traded up $1.36 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $59.54. 570,845 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 626,669. The company has a market cap of $6.93 billion, a PE ratio of -24.91 and a beta of 1.36. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $56.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $56.28. StepStone Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $40.07 and a fifty-two week high of $70.38.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 22nd. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.24. StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 15.21% and a negative net margin of 15.28%. The company had revenue of $295.86 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $231.87 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.33 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 66.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. StepStone Group's payout ratio is presently -40.17%.

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.