StepStone Group (STEP) Competitors

Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) and StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, risk, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Is CG or STEP a better dividend stock?

Carlyle Group pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. StepStone Group pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Carlyle Group pays out 40.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. StepStone Group pays out -36.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Carlyle Group has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years and StepStone Group has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Carlyle Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the media refer more to CG or STEP?

In the previous week, Carlyle Group had 13 more articles in the media than StepStone Group. MarketBeat recorded 22 mentions for Carlyle Group and 9 mentions for StepStone Group. Carlyle Group's average media sentiment score of 1.05 beat StepStone Group's score of 0.60 indicating that Carlyle Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Carlyle Group	14 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
StepStone Group	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts prefer CG or STEP?

Carlyle Group presently has a consensus target price of $59.93, suggesting a potential downside of 13.59%. StepStone Group has a consensus target price of $66.86, suggesting a potential upside of 2.24%. Given StepStone Group's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe StepStone Group is more favorable than Carlyle Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Carlyle Group	1 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
StepStone Group	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Which has more risk & volatility, CG or STEP?

Carlyle Group has a beta of 2.01, indicating that its stock price is 101% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, StepStone Group has a beta of 1.37, indicating that its stock price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of CG or STEP?

55.9% of Carlyle Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.5% of StepStone Group shares are held by institutional investors. 26.3% of Carlyle Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 16.5% of StepStone Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is CG or STEP more profitable?

Carlyle Group has a net margin of 20.22% compared to StepStone Group's net margin of -17.10%. Carlyle Group's return on equity of 23.60% beat StepStone Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Carlyle Group	20.22%	23.60%	6.41%
StepStone Group	-17.10%	16.07%	5.30%

Which has higher earnings and valuation, CG or STEP?

Carlyle Group has higher revenue and earnings than StepStone Group. StepStone Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Carlyle Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Carlyle Group	$3.71B	6.76	$1.02B	$3.42	20.28
StepStone Group	$1.17B	6.48	-$179.56M	-$3.08	-21.23

Summary

Carlyle Group beats StepStone Group on 16 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.