Scott Hart Sells 10,000 Shares of StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Stock

StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) CEO Scott Hart sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.34, for a total value of $643,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 30,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,930,200. This trade represents a 25.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

StepStone Group Trading Down 0.8%

STEP stock opened at $62.00 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $63.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $58.90. StepStone Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $40.07 and a 12-month high of $70.38. The company has a market cap of $7.22 billion, a PE ratio of -20.13 and a beta of 1.37.

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

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 29th were paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is a boost from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 29th. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is presently -36.36%.

Institutional Trading of StepStone Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in StepStone Group by 77.4% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 14,413 shares of the company’s stock valued at $753,000 after buying an additional 6,289 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in StepStone Group by 38.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,169 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 325 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in StepStone Group by 269.8% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,962,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $154,748,000 after buying an additional 2,161,548 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in StepStone Group during the first quarter valued at approximately $757,000. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in StepStone Group during the first quarter valued at approximately $499,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on STEP shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StepStone Group in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays set a $70.00 price objective on StepStone Group in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on StepStone Group from $61.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Oppenheimer cut their price target on StepStone Group from $84.00 to $83.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $72.83.

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.