StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,120,000 shares, a decrease of 15.8% from the March 31st total of 1,330,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 378,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.0 days.

Insider Activity at StepStone Group

In other StepStone Group news, major shareholder James Lim sold 9,008 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.06, for a total value of $315,820.48. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,388,746 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $223,989,434.76. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other StepStone Group news, major shareholder James Lim sold 9,008 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.06, for a total value of $315,820.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,388,746 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $223,989,434.76. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Keck sold 53,403 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.47, for a total transaction of $1,894,204.41. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 204,444 shares in the company, valued at $7,251,628.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 91,514 shares of company stock worth $3,233,084 in the last 90 days. 19.89% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in StepStone Group by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 24,644 shares of the company’s stock worth $784,000 after buying an additional 722 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 1.1% during the third quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 72,620 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,293,000 after acquiring an additional 788 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its holdings in StepStone Group by 7.8% in the third quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 15,207 shares of the company’s stock valued at $480,000 after acquiring an additional 1,102 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its position in StepStone Group by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 24,858 shares of the company’s stock worth $791,000 after purchasing an additional 1,818 shares during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in StepStone Group by 13.0% during the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 28,290 shares of the company’s stock worth $893,000 after purchasing an additional 3,264 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on STEP. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on StepStone Group in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $48.00 price objective for the company. Barclays raised their target price on StepStone Group from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $28.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $40.00 to $49.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.21.

StepStone Group Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of STEP stock opened at $36.45 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.50 and a beta of 1.25. StepStone Group has a 12-month low of $19.83 and a 12-month high of $38.25. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $34.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.71.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of ($14.61) million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $142.29 million. As a group, research analysts expect that StepStone Group will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current year.

StepStone Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.30%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 93.33%.

About StepStone Group

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.