StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Upgraded by The Goldman Sachs Group to "Buy" Rating

Key Points

• The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded StepStone Group from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating, setting a target price of $83.00, which indicates a potential upside of 28.83%.
• StepStone Group reported a quarterly EPS of $0.40, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42, despite a significant 95.4% increase in revenue compared to the same quarter last year.
• Insider activity saw CEO Scott W. Hart and CFO David Y. Park sell a combined 11,000 shares of the company's stock recently, indicating a 16.67% and 4.34% decrease in their ownership, respectively.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) was upgraded by analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has a $83.00 target price on the stock, up from their prior target price of $64.00. The Goldman Sachs Group's price objective would suggest a potential upside of 28.05% from the company's previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on STEP. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Zacks Research cut shares of StepStone Group from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $84.00 price objective (up from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $66.86.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STEP traded down $0.57 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $64.82. 2,891,701 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 505,111. The company has a market cap of $7.55 billion, a P/E ratio of -21.05 and a beta of 1.37. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $60.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $56.22. StepStone Group has a twelve month low of $40.07 and a twelve month high of $70.38.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 negative net margin of 17.10% and a positive return on equity of 16.07%. The company had revenue of $237.47 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $238.99 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $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 research analysts predict that StepStone Group will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.26, for a total transaction of $63,260.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,020 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,392,985.20. This represents a 4.34% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total transaction of $614,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,072,000. This represents a 16.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,000 shares of company stock worth $1,893,360 over the last three months. 16.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StepStone Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,419,566 shares of the company's stock valued at $387,524,000 after acquiring an additional 481,385 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 7.8% in 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 during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,043,640 shares of the company's stock worth $224,422,000 after purchasing an additional 32,625 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,580,157 shares of the company's stock worth $186,992,000 after purchasing an additional 94,477 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 269.8% in 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 during the period. Institutional investors own 55.54% of the company's stock.

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.