The Goldman Sachs Group Boosts StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Price Target to $63.00

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) had its price objective upped by stock analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $57.00 to $63.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a "neutral" rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group's price target indicates a potential upside of 8.98% from the company's current price.

STEP has been the subject of a number of other reports. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on StepStone Group from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Barclays set a $62.00 price objective on StepStone Group and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Oppenheimer set a $67.00 price objective on StepStone Group and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, 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 research report on Monday, April 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, StepStone Group presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $62.57.

StepStone Group Trading Down 2.2%

STEP stock traded down $1.31 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $57.81. 776,842 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 686,235. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $52.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.69. StepStone Group has a one year low of $40.07 and a one year high of $70.38. The company has a market cap of $6.70 billion, a P/E ratio of -34.21 and a beta of 1.37.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 22nd. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.24. StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 12.04% and a negative net margin of 11.29%. The business had revenue of $295.86 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $231.87 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.33 EPS. StepStone Group's revenue for the quarter was up 66.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that StepStone Group will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other StepStone Group news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 900 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total value of $54,009.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 109,100 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,547,091. This trade represents a 0.82% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 199,741 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.92, for a total transaction of $11,968,480.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 491,582 shares of the company's stock, valued at $29,455,593.44. The trade was a 28.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 338,426 shares of company stock worth $20,325,626. 18.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 6.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,419,566 shares of the company's stock worth $387,524,000 after acquiring an additional 481,385 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 7.8% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,038,665 shares of the company's stock valued at $315,400,000 after purchasing an additional 438,790 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 13.2% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,011,015 shares of the company's stock valued at $209,495,000 after purchasing an additional 468,745 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 2.7% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,580,157 shares of the company's stock valued at $186,992,000 after purchasing an additional 94,477 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 269.8% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,962,826 shares of the company's stock valued at $154,748,000 after purchasing an additional 2,161,548 shares during 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.