StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Upgraded at BMO Capital Markets

BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) to a strong-buy rating in a report issued on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on STEP. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $84.00 target price (up previously from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a report on Monday, August 11th. Evercore ISI lifted 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. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $64.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $68.71.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STEP opened at $66.96 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $61.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $57.12. The stock has a market cap of $7.80 billion, a P/E ratio of -21.74 and a beta of 1.37. StepStone Group has a 52-week low of $40.07 and a 52-week high of $70.38.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last announced its 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). The firm had revenue of $237.47 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $238.99 million. StepStone Group had a negative net margin of 17.10% and a positive return on equity of 16.07%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 95.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.48 EPS. Analysts predict that StepStone Group will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 29th were given a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis 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 was Friday, August 29th. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -36.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.26, for a total value of $63,260.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,020 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,392,985.20. This trade represents a 4.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total transaction of $614,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,072,000. This trade represents a 16.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 41,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,540,360 over the last 90 days. 16.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StepStone Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its stake in StepStone Group by 77.4% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 14,413 shares of the company’s stock worth $753,000 after buying an additional 6,289 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in StepStone Group by 38.5% in 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 in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in StepStone Group by 269.8% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,962,826 shares of the company’s stock worth $154,748,000 after buying an additional 2,161,548 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in StepStone Group by 42.8% in the 1st quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 23,527 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,229,000 after buying an additional 7,053 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Yousif Capital Management LLC grew its stake in StepStone Group by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 24,558 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,283,000 after buying an additional 641 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

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.