American Century Companies Inc. Sells 744,548 Shares of StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

American Century Companies Inc. decreased its stake in shares of StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) by 59.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 511,448 shares of the company’s stock after selling 744,548 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 0.47% of StepStone Group worth $12,391,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in STEP. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc lifted its position in StepStone Group by 67.1% during the third quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 1,170 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 470 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its position in StepStone Group by 57.5% in the first quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,389 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 507 shares during the period. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in StepStone Group in the first quarter worth approximately $36,000. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its position in StepStone Group by 5,132.1% in the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,465 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 1,437 shares during the period. Finally, Engineers Gate Manager LP bought a new position in StepStone Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $202,000. Institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at StepStone Group

In related news, insider Michael I. Mccabe bought 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $23.56 per share, with a total value of $589,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now owns 181,357 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,272,770.92. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 19.89% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on STEP. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $29.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 4th. TheStreet upgraded shares of StepStone Group from a “d+” rating to a “c-” rating in a research report on Monday, August 7th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $33.60.

StepStone Group Price Performance

Shares of STEP stock opened at $30.83 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 146.81 and a beta of 1.44. StepStone Group LP has a one year low of $19.83 and a one year high of $32.12. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $27.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $25.32.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $178.01 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $160.14 million. Equities research analysts expect that StepStone Group LP will post 1.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. This is a boost from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 30th. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 400.00%.

StepStone Group Company Profile

StepStone Group LP. 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.