StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Shares Gap Down to $53.05

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) shares gapped down prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $53.05, but opened at $50.24. StepStone Group shares last traded at $49.99, with a volume of 763,712 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on STEP. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on StepStone Group from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on StepStone Group from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on StepStone Group from $46.00 to $51.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, StepStone Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.88.

StepStone Group Stock Up 1.0 %

The firm has a market cap of $5.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.13 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a fifty day moving average of $50.05 and a 200 day moving average of $42.38.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $186.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $181.15 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.26 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that StepStone Group LP will post 1.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 13th. Investors of record on Friday, August 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. This is an increase from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 106.67%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StepStone Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of STEP. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $111,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S acquired a new position in StepStone Group during the 1st quarter worth approximately $149,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of StepStone Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $206,000. MQS Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the first quarter valued at approximately $243,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the second quarter worth $266,000. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About StepStone Group

StepStone Group LP. is an investment firm specializing in direct, fund of funds, secondary direct, and secondary indirect investments. For direct investment, it seeks to invest in venture debt, incubation, mezzanine, distressed/vulture, seed/startup, early venture, mid venture, late venture, emerging growth, later stage, turnaround, growth capital, industry consolidation, recapitalization, private equity and buyout investments in mature and middle market companies.