Cwm LLC Purchases 777 Shares of StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

Cwm LLC boosted its position in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) by 190.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,185 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 777 shares during the period. Cwm LLC’s holdings in StepStone Group were worth $67,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Amalgamated Bank boosted its holdings in StepStone Group by 749.8% in the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 16,001 shares of the company’s stock valued at $734,000 after acquiring an additional 14,118 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in StepStone Group by 991.1% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 291,530 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,378,000 after buying an additional 264,811 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board bought a new position in StepStone Group during the second quarter worth about $5,254,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in StepStone Group by 25.3% during 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 during the last quarter. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new position in StepStone Group during the second quarter worth about $897,000. Institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

StepStone Group Price Performance

STEP opened at $60.84 on Monday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $56.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $47.77. The company has a market capitalization of $6.73 billion, a PE ratio of 67.60 and a beta of 1.28. StepStone Group LP has a 1 year low of $25.06 and a 1 year high of $62.99.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last released 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 the consensus estimate of $181.15 million. The business’s revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.26 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that StepStone Group LP will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

About StepStone Group

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.