UBS Group Raises StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Price Target to $65.00

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) had its price target hoisted by UBS Group from $55.00 to $65.00 in a research report report published on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. UBS Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on STEP. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Barclays boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $51.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $51.50 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $54.69.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

STEP opened at $60.84 on Tuesday. StepStone Group has a fifty-two week low of $25.06 and a fifty-two week high of $62.99. The company has a market capitalization of $6.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 67.60 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $56.35 and a 200-day moving average of $47.43.

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 firm had revenue of $186.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $181.15 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.26 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that StepStone Group will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of StepStone Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. American International Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 1.2% during the first quarter. American International Group Inc. now owns 27,152 shares of the company’s stock worth $970,000 after purchasing an additional 322 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 291.1% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 618 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 460 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC grew its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 190.4% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 777 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 1,586.3% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 860 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 809 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 10.8% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 9,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $354,000 after purchasing an additional 963 shares during the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.