StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Stock Price Up 5.3% – Here’s What Happened

StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP)’s share price rose 5.3% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $45.82 and last traded at $45.6480. Approximately 226,871 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 83% from the average daily volume of 1,326,293 shares. The stock had previously closed at $43.33.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on STEP. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on StepStone Group from $105.00 to $104.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StepStone Group in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Barclays raised shares of StepStone Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $67.00 to $55.00 in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Zacks Research cut shares of StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $84.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $78.86.

StepStone Group Price Performance

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.37 billion, a PE ratio of -6.50 and a beta of 1.39.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $241.13 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $363.92 million. StepStone Group had a negative net margin of 30.66% and a positive return on equity of 31.44%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 102.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.44 EPS. Analysts forecast that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current year.

StepStone Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 27th were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 27th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently -16.14%.

StepStone Group declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Monday, March 9th that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.52, for a total value of $725,200.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 16.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STEP. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in StepStone Group by 19.2% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 7,954 shares of the company’s stock worth $511,000 after purchasing an additional 1,281 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $136,000. XTX Topco Ltd lifted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 114.6% in the fourth quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 14,318 shares of the company’s stock worth $919,000 after buying an additional 7,645 shares in the last quarter. VARCOV Co. purchased a new position in shares of StepStone Group in the fourth quarter worth about $238,000. Finally, Voloridge Investment Management LLC boosted its position in StepStone Group by 25.3% during the fourth quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 370,239 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,758,000 after acquiring an additional 74,745 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

StepStone Group Company Profile

StepStone Group is a global private markets investment firm that provides specialized investment solutions across private equity, private credit and real assets. The firm offers customized portfolios, secondary interests, direct co-investments and tailored advisory services to institutional investors worldwide. StepStone’s integrated research and data analytics platform supports its investment teams in sourcing opportunities and monitoring portfolio companies.

Founded in 2007 as an independent private markets specialist, the company has grown its presence through both organic expansion and strategic partnerships.