StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Analysts

Key Points

• StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) has received an average rating of "Hold" from analysts, with four ratings at hold and three at buy, while the average one-year price objective is $63.43.
• The company reported a 66.8% increase in revenue year-over-year, generating $295.86 million during its last quarter, surpassing expectations.
• StepStone Group has announced a $0.24 quarterly dividend, yielding 1.7%, with an insider recently selling a significant stake in the company.

Shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average rating of "Hold" from the seven ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $63.43.

STEP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer upped their target price on StepStone Group from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Barclays set a $62.00 target price on StepStone Group and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on StepStone Group from $66.00 to $51.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th.

StepStone Group Price Performance

STEP stock opened at $56.80 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.61 billion, a P/E ratio of -23.77 and a beta of 1.37. The business has a 50-day moving average of $57.85 and a 200-day moving average of $56.42. StepStone Group 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 posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $295.86 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $231.87 million. StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 15.21% and a negative net margin of 15.28%. StepStone Group's revenue for the quarter was up 66.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.33 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that StepStone Group will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th were given a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. StepStone Group's dividend payout ratio is presently -40.17%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 199,741 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.92, for a total value of $11,968,480.72. Following the transaction, the insider owned 491,582 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $29,455,593.44. This represents a 28.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 27,697 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.06, for a total value of $1,663,481.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 80,000 shares in the company, valued at $4,804,800. The trade was a 25.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 426,144 shares of company stock valued at $25,370,101. 18.44% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StepStone Group

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STEP. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in StepStone Group during the fourth quarter worth approximately $11,543,000. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 6,227 shares of the company's stock valued at $360,000 after purchasing an additional 2,035 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 871,718 shares of the company's stock valued at $50,455,000 after purchasing an additional 66,523 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,508,666 shares of the company's stock valued at $87,341,000 after purchasing an additional 50,976 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the 4th quarter valued at $32,340,000. 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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