StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) PT Raised to $73.00 at Oppenheimer

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) had its price target raised by Oppenheimer from $56.00 to $73.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

STEP has been the subject of a number of other reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on StepStone Group from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Barclays boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $51.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.44.

StepStone Group Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of StepStone Group stock opened at $60.88 on Wednesday. StepStone Group has a 1-year low of $25.06 and a 1-year high of $61.48. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $55.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $46.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.64 and a beta of 1.28.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.48 EPS 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. StepStone Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.26 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that StepStone Group will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th were issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. This is an increase from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is currently 106.67%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StepStone Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of STEP. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,994,497 shares of the company’s stock worth $222,635,000 after buying an additional 627,059 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in StepStone Group by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,270,144 shares of the company’s stock valued at $167,749,000 after purchasing an additional 90,974 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 74.3% during the first quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 50,099 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,791,000 after purchasing an additional 21,354 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 1.6% in 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. Finally, BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S bought a new position in StepStone Group in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $149,000. Institutional investors own 55.54% 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.