StepStone Group Inc. $STEP Shares Sold by Blair William & Co. IL

Blair William & Co. IL trimmed its holdings in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) by 42.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,972 shares of the company’s stock after selling 11,830 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in StepStone Group were worth $886,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted 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 during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted 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 during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 269.8% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,962,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $154,748,000 after purchasing an additional 2,161,548 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new position in shares of StepStone Group in the 1st quarter valued at about $499,000. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new position in shares of StepStone Group in the 1st quarter valued at about $757,000. 55.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on STEP shares. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on StepStone Group from $84.00 to $83.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $64.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on StepStone Group in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $74.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Zacks Research lowered StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, StepStone Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $69.57.

StepStone Group Stock Down 5.4%

STEP stock opened at $61.80 on Friday. StepStone Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $40.07 and a 52-week high of $70.38. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $62.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.73. The company has a market capitalization of $7.19 billion, a PE ratio of -20.06 and a beta of 1.37.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $237.47 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $238.99 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.48 earnings per share. StepStone Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 95.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 29th were issued a $0.28 dividend. This is a positive change from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 29th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -36.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.70, for a total value of $647,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 40,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,588,000. The trade was a 20.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the chief financial officer owned 22,020 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,392,985.20. The trade was a 4.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,937,460 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 16.47% of the company’s stock.

StepStone Group Company 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.