Teacher Retirement System of Texas Makes New Investment in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 9,555 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $499,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in STEP. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC acquired a new position in StepStone Group in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Versant Capital Management Inc acquired a new stake in StepStone Group during the first quarter worth about $35,000. Amundi raised 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 purchasing an additional 154 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised 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 purchasing an additional 791 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 38.5% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,169 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 325 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at StepStone Group

In other news, insider Jason P. Ment sold 55,608 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.71, for a total transaction of $3,375,961.68. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 34,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,073,550.05. The trade was a 61.95% 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 this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 27,697 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.06, for a total value of $1,663,481.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 80,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,804,800. This represents a 25.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 416,144 shares of company stock valued at $24,757,301 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 18.44% of the company’s stock.

StepStone Group Stock Up 1.3%

NASDAQ STEP opened at $59.64 on Thursday. StepStone Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $40.07 and a fifty-two week high of $70.38. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $57.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $56.26. The stock has a market cap of $6.94 billion, a PE ratio of -24.95 and a beta of 1.36.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 22nd. The company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $295.86 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.87 million. StepStone Group had a negative net margin of 15.28% and a positive return on equity of 15.21%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 66.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.33 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th were issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.61%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently -40.17%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on STEP. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Barclays set a $62.00 target price on shares of StepStone Group and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $66.00 to $51.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.43.

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.