StepStone Group Inc. $STEP Stock Position Raised by Cetera Investment Advisers

Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) by 34.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,495 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,419 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in StepStone Group were worth $287,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in shares of StepStone Group in the 1st quarter valued at $753,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 9.8% in the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 5,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $292,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the period. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC increased its position in shares of StepStone Group by 76.2% in the first quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 208,281 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,879,000 after acquiring an additional 90,052 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 40.7% during the first quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 786,221 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,064,000 after acquiring an additional 227,483 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 14.0% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $84,000 after acquiring an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on STEP. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Zacks Research downgraded StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $84.00 price objective (up from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Barclays lifted their target price on StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.00.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STEP opened at $58.57 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $58.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.09. StepStone Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $40.07 and a 52 week high of $70.38. The stock has a market cap of $6.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.02 and a beta of 1.37.

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

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be given a $0.28 dividend. 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 presently -31.17%.

Insider Transactions at StepStone Group

In other news, insider Jason P. Ment sold 55,608 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider owned 34,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,073,550.05. This represents a 61.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 60,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,676,800. This trade represents a 14.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 424,444 shares of company stock worth $25,268,076. 16.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.