Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Invests $227,000 in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 3,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of StepStone Group by 964.8% during the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 53,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,046,000 after buying an additional 48,385 shares in the last quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in StepStone Group during the third quarter worth approximately $462,000. PDT Partners LLC lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 445.7% during the third quarter. PDT Partners LLC now owns 27,829 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,582,000 after purchasing an additional 22,729 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 16.1% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 132,888 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,552,000 after purchasing an additional 18,403 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FORA Capital LLC purchased a new stake in StepStone Group during the third quarter worth approximately $717,000. 55.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on STEP. 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 note on Tuesday, October 1st. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Barclays decreased their target price on StepStone Group from $72.00 to $66.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on StepStone Group from $64.00 to $70.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.07.

StepStone Group Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ STEP opened at $60.10 on Wednesday. StepStone Group LP has a twelve month low of $25.88 and a twelve month high of $70.38. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $62.59 and a two-hundred day moving average of $53.73. The stock has a market cap of $6.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 99.70 and a beta of 1.27.

StepStone Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is currently 160.00%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 729 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.85, for a total value of $50,191.65. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 2,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,578.30. The trade was a 25.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 22,091 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.24, for a total value of $1,397,034.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,909 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,986,165.16. The trade was a 12.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 29,820 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,856. Company insiders own 18.44% 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.