Deutsche Bank AG Sells 975 Shares of StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

Deutsche Bank AG trimmed its holdings in shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) by 1.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 54,962 shares of the company’s stock after selling 975 shares during the quarter. Deutsche Bank AG’s holdings in StepStone Group were worth $2,871,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of STEP. Bank of Montreal Can increased its stake in StepStone Group by 18.4% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 7,226 shares of the company’s stock worth $418,000 after purchasing an additional 1,125 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in StepStone Group by 17.1% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 131,220 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,596,000 after purchasing an additional 19,201 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in StepStone Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $233,000. First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in StepStone Group by 281.4% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 148,557 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,598,000 after purchasing an additional 109,602 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 11.5% during the 4th quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 39,493 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,286,000 after acquiring an additional 4,075 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

STEP opened at $58.35 on Wednesday. StepStone Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $40.07 and a fifty-two week high of $70.38. The company has a market capitalization of $6.79 billion, a P/E ratio of -18.94 and a beta of 1.37. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $58.19 and a 200-day moving average of $56.08.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.02). StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 16.07% and a negative net margin of 17.10%.The firm had revenue of $237.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $238.99 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.48 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 95.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is an increase from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is -36.36%.

Insider Transactions at StepStone Group

In other news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.28, for a total transaction of $612,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 60,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,676,800. This trade represents a 14.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 67,718 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.54, for a total value of $3,828,775.72. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 423,864 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,965,270.56. This represents a 13.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 424,444 shares of company stock valued at $25,268,076. 16.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on STEP shares. Barclays raised their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $84.00 price target (up from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target 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. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.00.

About StepStone Group

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.