StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) shares gapped up before the market opened on Thursday after The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded the stock from a neutral rating to a buy rating. The stock had previously closed at $60.13, but opened at $63.39. The Goldman Sachs Group now has a $83.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $64.00. StepStone Group shares last traded at $64.56, with a volume of 349,969 shares trading hands.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $84.00 price objective (up previously from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Zacks Research cut shares of StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.86.

Insider Activity

In other StepStone Group news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total transaction of $614,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,072,000. This represents a 16.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.26, for a total transaction of $63,260.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,020 shares in the company, valued at $1,392,985.20. This represents a 4.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 31,000 shares of company stock worth $1,893,360 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 16.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of StepStone Group

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Osaic Holdings Inc. grew its stake in StepStone Group by 368.0% during the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 2,223 shares of the company’s stock worth $118,000 after buying an additional 1,748 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new stake in StepStone Group during the second quarter worth about $2,161,000. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP bought a new stake in StepStone Group during the second quarter worth about $2,779,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its stake in StepStone Group by 7.5% during the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 224,974 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,486,000 after buying an additional 15,746 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in StepStone Group by 535.0% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 8,808 shares of the company’s stock worth $489,000 after buying an additional 7,421 shares during the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

StepStone Group Price Performance

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $60.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $56.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.61 billion, a P/E ratio of -21.23 and a beta of 1.37.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 company had revenue of $237.47 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $238.99 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.48 earnings per share. StepStone Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 95.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 29th were paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. This is an increase from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 29th. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is currently -36.36%.

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.