Fred Alger Management LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

Fred Alger Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) by 20.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,619,361 shares of the company's stock after selling 405,862 shares during the quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC owned about 1.41% of StepStone Group worth $93,729,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of STEP. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in StepStone Group by 6.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,938,181 shares of the company's stock valued at $401,582,000 after acquiring an additional 411,133 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of StepStone Group by 19.0% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,599,875 shares of the company's stock valued at $324,122,000 after purchasing an additional 895,521 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in StepStone Group by 11.5% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,542,270 shares of the company's stock worth $205,027,000 after purchasing an additional 366,154 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in StepStone Group by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,902,366 shares of the company's stock worth $110,109,000 after buying an additional 14,888 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,711,872 shares of the company's stock valued at $99,083,000 after buying an additional 77,490 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at StepStone Group

In related news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.43, for a total transaction of $614,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 110,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,757,300. This represents a 8.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 538 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.00, for a total value of $33,894.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,386 shares of the company's stock, valued at $87,318. The trade was a 27.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.44% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $69.00 to $48.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on StepStone Group from $66.00 to $51.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer set a $67.00 target price on StepStone Group and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $61.64.

StepStone Group Trading Down 1.2 %

NASDAQ:STEP traded down $0.67 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $54.67. 382,392 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 672,799. StepStone Group LP has a fifty-two week low of $36.97 and a fifty-two week high of $70.38. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $50.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.34 billion, a P/E ratio of -32.35 and a beta of 1.37.

About StepStone Group

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.