XTX Topco Ltd Purchases New Stake in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 5,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $266,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in StepStone Group by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,994,497 shares of the company’s stock valued at $222,635,000 after purchasing an additional 627,059 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,270,144 shares of the company’s stock valued at $167,749,000 after acquiring an additional 90,974 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,948,665 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,385,000 after acquiring an additional 46,860 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 25.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,115,384 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,185,000 after acquiring an additional 225,201 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 150.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 850,463 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,396,000 after acquiring an additional 510,283 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

Shares of StepStone Group stock opened at $57.28 on Friday. StepStone Group LP has a 52-week low of $25.06 and a 52-week high of $58.09. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $52.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $44.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.65 and a beta of 1.28.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $186.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $181.15 million. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.26 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that StepStone Group LP will post 1.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 30th. This is a positive change from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is presently 106.67%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on STEP shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on StepStone Group from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. UBS Group raised their price objective on StepStone Group from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on StepStone Group from $46.00 to $51.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Barclays lifted their target price on StepStone Group from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on StepStone Group from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.88.

StepStone Group 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.