Strs Ohio Invests $757,000 in StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 14,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $757,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 38.5% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,169 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after buying an additional 325 shares during the last quarter. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new stake in StepStone Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $65,000. CWM LLC boosted its stake in StepStone Group by 14.0% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $84,000 after buying an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in StepStone Group by 943.5% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,847 shares of the company’s stock valued at $96,000 after acquiring an additional 1,670 shares during the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

STEP has been the subject of a number of research reports. Zacks Research cut shares of 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 previously from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Barclays boosted their target price 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. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $64.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.86.

Insider Activity at StepStone Group

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

StepStone Group Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of NASDAQ STEP opened at $64.82 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $60.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $56.22. StepStone Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $40.07 and a 1-year high of $70.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.55 billion, a P/E ratio of -21.05 and a beta of 1.37.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.40 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 firm had revenue of $237.47 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $238.99 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.48 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 95.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

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

StepStone Group 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.