StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $49.44.

STEP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on StepStone Group from $51.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday. UBS Group increased their price objective on StepStone Group from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $51.50 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STEP opened at $59.60 on Friday. StepStone Group has a fifty-two week low of $25.06 and a fifty-two week high of $61.39. The stock has a market cap of $6.59 billion, a PE ratio of 66.22 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $53.94 and a 200-day moving average of $45.67.

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

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Investors of record on Friday, August 30th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This is a positive change from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 106.67%.

Institutional Trading of StepStone Group

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in StepStone Group by 9.8% during 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. increased its position in shares of StepStone Group by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,270,144 shares of the company’s stock valued at $167,749,000 after buying an additional 90,974 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its position in shares of StepStone Group by 1.6% during the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,948,665 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,385,000 after buying an additional 46,860 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in StepStone Group by 25.3% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,115,384 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,185,000 after buying an additional 225,201 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in StepStone Group by 150.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 850,463 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,396,000 after buying an additional 510,283 shares during the period. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About StepStone Group

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.