StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at BMO Capital Markets

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) was upgraded by analysts at BMO Capital Markets to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

STEP has been the subject of several other research reports. Zacks Research downgraded StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $84.00 price target (up previously from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $68.71.

StepStone Group Price Performance

NASDAQ STEP opened at $66.96 on Thursday. StepStone Group has a 1-year low of $40.07 and a 1-year high of $70.38. The company has a market capitalization of $7.80 billion, a P/E ratio of -21.74 and a beta of 1.37. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $61.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $57.11.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at StepStone Group

In related news, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction on 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 owned 22,020 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,392,985.20. This trade represents a 4.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.70, for a total value of $647,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 40,000 shares in the company, valued at $2,588,000. The trade was a 20.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,000 shares of company stock worth $2,540,360 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 16.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Osaic Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in StepStone Group by 368.0% in the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 2,223 shares of the company’s stock valued at $118,000 after acquiring an additional 1,748 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC purchased a new position in StepStone Group in the second quarter valued at about $2,161,000. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP purchased a new position in StepStone Group in the second quarter valued at about $2,779,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its position in StepStone Group by 7.5% in the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 224,974 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,486,000 after purchasing an additional 15,746 shares during the period. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its position in StepStone Group by 535.0% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 8,808 shares of the company’s stock valued at $489,000 after purchasing an additional 7,421 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

StepStone Group Company 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.