Yousif Capital Management LLC Increases Stock Position in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP)

Yousif Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) by 2.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,558 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 641 shares during the quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in StepStone Group were worth $1,283,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of STEP. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC bought a new stake in StepStone Group in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Versant Capital Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the 1st quarter worth about $35,000. IFP Advisors Inc bought a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the 4th quarter worth about $36,000. Amundi increased its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 26.7% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 730 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 154 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 444.4% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 969 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 791 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at StepStone Group

In related news, insider Jason P. Ment sold 800 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.02, for a total value of $48,016.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 90,663 shares in the company, valued at $5,441,593.26. This trade represents a 0.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 199,741 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.92, for a total transaction of $11,968,480.72. Following the sale, the insider now owns 491,582 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,455,593.44. The trade was a 28.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 406,144 shares of company stock valued at $24,154,401 over the last quarter. 18.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

StepStone Group Price Performance

Shares of STEP stock opened at $52.67 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.13 billion, a P/E ratio of -22.04 and a beta of 1.40. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $54.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $56.85. StepStone Group Inc. has a one year low of $40.07 and a one year high of $70.38.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 22nd. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.24. StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 15.21% and a negative net margin of 15.28%. The firm had revenue of $295.86 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $231.87 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.33 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 66.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.82%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -40.17%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on STEP. Oppenheimer set a $67.00 price objective on StepStone Group and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on StepStone Group from $66.00 to $51.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Barclays set a $62.00 target price on StepStone Group and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.57.

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.