Legal & General Group Plc Boosts Stake in StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 179,265 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 6,450 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in StepStone Group were worth $9,949,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 269.8% during the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,962,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $154,748,000 after acquiring an additional 2,161,548 shares during the period. Strs Ohio purchased a new position in shares of StepStone Group during the first quarter valued at approximately $757,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS lifted its position in StepStone Group by 12.7% during the second quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS now owns 14,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $788,000 after purchasing an additional 1,600 shares during the period. Monument Capital Management purchased a new stake in StepStone Group in the second quarter worth approximately $272,000. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp bought a new stake in StepStone Group in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,112,000. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

StepStone Group Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of STEP opened at $61.74 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $63.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $60.55. StepStone Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $40.07 and a 52 week high of $68.40. The stock has a market cap of $7.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.72 and a beta of 1.44.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $282.34 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $272.15 million. StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 21.53% and a negative net margin of 40.06%.The firm’s revenue was up 35.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.45 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 28th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 28th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is -14.00%.

Insider Transactions at StepStone Group

In other news, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.26, for a total transaction of $63,260.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,020 shares in the company, valued at $1,392,985.20. This trade represents a 4.34% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Jose A. Fernandez sold 70,402 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.30, for a total transaction of $4,386,044.60. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 171,806 shares of company stock valued at $10,680,214 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 16.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

STEP has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on StepStone Group from $61.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on StepStone Group in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $74.00 target price on the stock. Zacks Research downgraded StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $73.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $74.29.

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.