StepStone Group Inc. $STEP Shares Sold by New York State Teachers Retirement System

New York State Teachers Retirement System reduced its stake in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) by 9.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 14,400 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,573 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in StepStone Group were worth $799,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 77.4% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 14,413 shares of the company’s stock worth $753,000 after acquiring an additional 6,289 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 38.5% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,169 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 269.8% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,962,826 shares of the company’s stock worth $154,748,000 after acquiring an additional 2,161,548 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio acquired a new position in shares of StepStone Group in the 1st quarter worth approximately $757,000. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new position in shares of StepStone Group in the 1st quarter worth approximately $499,000. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of StepStone Group in a report on Friday, October 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $74.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $61.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $64.00 to $83.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 17th. Barclays set a $70.00 target price on shares of StepStone Group in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StepStone Group in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, StepStone Group has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $72.83.

Insider Buying and Selling at StepStone Group

In other StepStone Group news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total transaction of $614,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,072,000. This trade represents a 16.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.26, for a total value of $63,260.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,020 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,392,985.20. The trade was a 4.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,937,460 in the last 90 days. 16.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

StepStone Group Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of STEP opened at $63.07 on Thursday. StepStone Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $40.07 and a twelve month high of $70.38. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $62.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -20.48 and a beta of 1.37.

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

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 29th were paid a $0.28 dividend. This is a boost from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 29th. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is currently -36.36%.

StepStone Group Profile

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.