Oppenheimer Cuts StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Price Target to $83.00

Key Points

• Oppenheimer has reduced its price target for StepStone Group from $84.00 to $83.00, maintaining an "outperform" rating, which still suggests a potential upside of 25.70% from its current price.
• Different analysts have varying opinions; while Goldman Sachs upgraded its rating to "buy" with a target of $83.00, Zacks lowered its assessment to "hold".
• StepStone Group's shares rose 0.9% to $66.03, with a reported quarterly earnings miss of $0.40 EPS against an expectation of $0.42 EPS, although revenue grew significantly year-over-year.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) had its price objective cut by investment analysts at Oppenheimer from $84.00 to $83.00 in a research report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an "outperform" rating on the stock. Oppenheimer's target price indicates a potential upside of 25.70% from the stock's current price.

STEP has been the topic of a number of other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised StepStone Group from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $64.00 to $83.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 17th. Zacks Research lowered shares of StepStone Group from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of StepStone Group in a report on Friday, October 3rd. They set an "outperform" rating and a $74.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d+)" rating on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, StepStone Group presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $69.57.

StepStone Group Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of NASDAQ STEP traded up $0.61 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $66.03. 65,928 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 622,129. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $62.39 and a 200 day moving average of $57.55. StepStone Group has a 1 year low of $40.07 and a 1 year high of $70.38. The stock has a market cap of $7.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -21.49 and a beta of 1.37.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $238.99 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.48 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 95.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that StepStone Group will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at StepStone Group

In other StepStone Group news, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.26, for a total transaction of $63,260.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,020 shares in the company, valued at $1,392,985.20. This represents a 4.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction on Monday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total value of $614,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 50,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,072,000. The trade was a 16.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,937,460 over the last quarter. 16.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in STEP. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the second quarter valued at $46,000. 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 buying an additional 325 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of StepStone Group by 332.2% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,236 shares of the company's stock worth $69,000 after buying an additional 950 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its stake 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 buying an additional 196 shares during the period. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in StepStone Group by 88.2% in the second quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,829 shares of the company's stock valued at $102,000 after acquiring an additional 857 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.54% of the company's stock.

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.

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