Brokerages Set StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) Price Target at $66.86

Key Points

• StepStone Group Inc. has received an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from brokerages, with an average twelve-month price target of $66.86.
• Insider trading activity includes CEO Scott W. Hart selling 10,000 shares, reducing his stake by 16.67%, while CFO David Y. Park also sold shares, reflecting a decreasing trend in insider ownership.
• The company recently increased its quarterly dividend from $0.24 to $0.28 per share, offering an annualized dividend yield of 1.7%.

Shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $66.8571.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised StepStone Group from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $64.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Zacks Research downgraded StepStone Group from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Barclays upped their price target on StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $84.00 price target (up previously from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Monday, August 11th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other StepStone Group news, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 22,020 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,392,985.20. This represents a 4.34% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total value 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,893,360. Insiders own 16.47% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StepStone Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in STEP. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 269.8% during the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,962,826 shares of the company's stock worth $154,748,000 after purchasing an additional 2,161,548 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,419,566 shares of the company's stock worth $387,524,000 after purchasing an additional 481,385 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 13.2% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,011,015 shares of the company's stock worth $209,495,000 after purchasing an additional 468,745 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,038,665 shares of the company's stock worth $315,400,000 after purchasing an additional 438,790 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of StepStone Group during the 1st quarter worth approximately $17,018,000. Institutional investors own 55.54% of the company's stock.

StepStone Group Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of STEP traded up $1.00 on Friday, hitting $67.90. The company's stock had a trading volume of 296,530 shares, compared to its average volume of 621,827. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $60.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $56.34. StepStone Group has a fifty-two week low of $40.07 and a fifty-two week high of $70.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -21.97 and a beta of 1.37.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.02). StepStone Group had a negative net margin of 17.10% and a positive return on equity of 16.07%. The business had revenue of $237.47 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $238.99 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.48 earnings per share. StepStone Group's revenue for the quarter was up 95.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that StepStone Group will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders 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 payout ratio is currently -36.36%.

StepStone Group Company 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.