Public Sector Pension Investment Board Buys 51,685 Shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its stake in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) by 32.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 209,228 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 51,685 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board owned approximately 0.18% of StepStone Group worth $10,928,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of STEP. Versant Capital Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of StepStone Group in the first quarter valued at about $35,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 38.5% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,169 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares in the last quarter. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of StepStone Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $65,000. CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 14.0% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $84,000 after acquiring an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vicus Capital grew its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 9.8% in the first quarter. Vicus Capital now owns 4,020 shares of the company’s stock valued at $210,000 after acquiring an additional 359 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on STEP. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $84.00 price objective (up previously from $81.00) on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Monday. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, StepStone Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.00.

Insider Transactions at StepStone Group

In other news, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 199,741 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.92, for a total value of $11,968,480.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 491,582 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,455,593.44. This represents a 28.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jason P. Ment sold 55,608 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.71, for a total transaction of $3,375,961.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 34,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,073,550.05. This trade represents a 61.95% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 424,444 shares of company stock valued at $25,268,076. 16.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

StepStone Group Stock Up 1.8%

STEP opened at $62.38 on Thursday. StepStone Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $40.07 and a twelve month high of $70.38. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $57.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -20.25 and a beta of 1.37.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $237.47 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $238.99 million. StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 16.07% and a negative net margin of 17.10%. The firm’s revenue was up 95.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.48 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be issued a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. This is an increase from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -36.36%.

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.