StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Stock Rating Upgraded by BMO Capital Markets

BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StepStone Group in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $84.00 price target (up from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Zacks Research lowered shares of StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $64.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, StepStone Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $68.71.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ STEP opened at $66.96 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $7.80 billion, a PE ratio of -21.74 and a beta of 1.37. StepStone Group has a one year low of $40.07 and a one year high of $70.38. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $61.76 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.11.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $237.47 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $238.99 million. StepStone Group had a negative net margin of 17.10% and a positive return on equity of 16.07%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 95.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.48 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that StepStone Group will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 29th were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is an increase from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 29th. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is presently -36.36%.

Insider Transactions at StepStone Group

In related news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.70, for a total transaction of $647,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 40,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,588,000. The trade was a 20.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,020 shares in the company, valued at $1,392,985.20. This trade represents a 4.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 41,000 shares of company stock worth $2,540,360. 16.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of StepStone Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 valued at $387,524,000 after buying 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% during 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 buying an additional 438,790 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 0.8% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,043,640 shares of the company’s stock valued at $224,422,000 after buying an additional 32,625 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in StepStone Group by 2.7% during the first 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 raised its stake in StepStone Group by 269.8% during the first 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.