SG Americas Securities LLC Makes New $111,000 Investment in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 2,408 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $111,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of STEP. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S bought a new position in StepStone Group during the first quarter worth $149,000. MQS Management LLC acquired a new stake in StepStone Group during the 1st quarter worth about $243,000. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of StepStone Group by 10.8% in the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 9,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $354,000 after acquiring an additional 963 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of StepStone Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $442,000. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 34.0% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 15,510 shares of the company’s stock valued at $494,000 after purchasing an additional 3,937 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays lifted their target price on StepStone Group from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 15th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $46.00 to $51.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.88.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David F. Hoffmeister acquired 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 30th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $44.29 per share, for a total transaction of $996,525.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 45,853 shares in the company, valued at $2,030,829.37. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, Director David F. Hoffmeister acquired 22,500 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $44.29 per share, with a total value of $996,525.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 45,853 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,030,829.37. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Steven R. Mitchell sold 27,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.34, for a total value of $1,219,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $406,110.06. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 19.89% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

StepStone Group Trading Up 1.7 %

STEP opened at $54.58 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $6.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.65 and a beta of 1.27. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $47.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $40.77. StepStone Group LP has a 1-year low of $25.06 and a 1-year high of $56.18.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $186.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $181.15 million. The company’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.26 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that StepStone Group LP will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 13th. Investors of record on Friday, August 30th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This is a boost from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.76%. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is presently 93.33%.

StepStone Group Company Profile

StepStone Group LP. is an investment firm specializing in direct, fund of funds, secondary direct, and secondary indirect investments. For direct investment, it seeks to invest in venture debt, incubation, mezzanine, distressed/vulture, seed/startup, early venture, mid venture, late venture, emerging growth, later stage, turnaround, growth capital, industry consolidation, recapitalization, private equity and buyout investments in mature and middle market companies.