Cohen & Steers (NYSE:CNS – Get Free Report) and StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP – Get Free Report) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, profitability, risk, earnings and institutional ownership.
Volatility & Risk
Cohen & Steers has a beta of 1.36, meaning that its stock price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, StepStone Group has a beta of 1.44, meaning that its stock price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Cohen & Steers and StepStone Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Cohen & Steers | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.00 |
| StepStone Group | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2.20 |
Insider and Institutional Ownership
51.5% of Cohen & Steers shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.5% of StepStone Group shares are held by institutional investors. 48.2% of Cohen & Steers shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 19.9% of StepStone Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Profitability
This table compares Cohen & Steers and StepStone Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Cohen & Steers | 28.16% | 46.02% | 25.74% |
| StepStone Group | N/A | 7.68% | 3.54% |
Dividends
Cohen & Steers pays an annual dividend of $2.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. StepStone Group pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Cohen & Steers pays out 78.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. StepStone Group pays out 400.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Cohen & Steers has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years and StepStone Group has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Cohen & Steers is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Cohen & Steers and StepStone Group’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Cohen & Steers | $566.91 million | 5.63 | $171.04 million | $2.91 | 22.34 |
| StepStone Group | $187.66 million | 17.96 | -$18.40 million | $0.21 | 146.90 |
Cohen & Steers has higher revenue and earnings than StepStone Group. Cohen & Steers is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than StepStone Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Cohen & Steers beats StepStone Group on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Cohen & Steers
Cohen & Steers, Inc. is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides its services to institutional investors, including pension funds, endowments, and foundations. It manages separate client-focused equity, fixed income, multi-asset, and commodity portfolios through its subsidiaries. The firm launches and manages equity, fixed income, balanced, and multi-asset mutual funds through its subsidiaries. Through its subsidiaries, it also launches and manages hedge funds. The firm invests in public equity, fixed income, and commodity markets across the globe through its subsidiaries. Through its subsidiaries, it invests in companies operating in the real estate sector, including real estate investment trusts, infrastructure sector, and natural energy resources sector for its equity and fixed income investments. The firm also invests in preferred securities for its fixed income investments through its subsidiaries. The firm is a leading global investment manager specializing in real assets and alternative income, including real estate, preferred securities, infrastructure, resource equities, commodities, as well as multi-strategy solutions. Cohen & Steers, Inc. was founded in 1986 and is based in New York.
About StepStone Group
StepStone Group Inc. 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. It prefers to invest in natural resources, technology, healthcare, services, materials, manufacturing, consumer durables, apparel, hotels, restaurants and leisure, media, retailing, consumer staples, financials, telecommunication services, energy, infrastructure, real estate, and real asset. The firm invests globally with a focus on United States, North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, Middle East, Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, New Zealand, China, India, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Australia region. It typically invests between $15 million and $200 million in firms with enterprise value between $150 million and $25000 million. The firm invests between 5% and 40% in emerging markets. For fund of fund investment, it seeks to invest in private equity funds, venture capital funds, Special situation funds, Real estate funds, Infrastructure funds, mezzanine funds, and turnaround/distressed funds. It considers investments in both domestic and international funds. It also seeks to make co-investments and follow-on investments and considers partial interests in funds. StepStone Group Inc. was founded in 2007 and is based in New York, New York with additional offices across North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.
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