StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seven research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $64.36.

STEP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $56.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on StepStone Group from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO David Y. Park sold 3,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.21, for a total transaction of $204,630.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,251 shares in the company, valued at $1,381,320.71. The trade was a 12.90 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 729 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.85, for a total value of $50,191.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 2,158 shares in the company, valued at $148,578.30. This represents a 25.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of StepStone Group

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STEP. Amalgamated Bank lifted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 749.8% in the 2nd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 16,001 shares of the company’s stock valued at $734,000 after purchasing an additional 14,118 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 991.1% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 291,530 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,378,000 after buying an additional 264,811 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board acquired a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the second quarter worth about $5,254,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 25.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,115,384 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,185,000 after acquiring an additional 225,201 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 399.3% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 12,024 shares of the company’s stock valued at $683,000 after acquiring an additional 9,616 shares during the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

StepStone Group Stock Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ:STEP opened at $65.89 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $61.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 109.82 and a beta of 1.27. StepStone Group has a 1-year low of $25.06 and a 1-year high of $70.38.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.46%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 160.00%.

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.