Victory Capital Management Inc. Acquires 4,430 Shares of StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) by 22.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,751 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,430 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in StepStone Group were worth $1,090,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in STEP. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,994,497 shares of the company’s stock valued at $222,635,000 after purchasing an additional 627,059 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,270,144 shares of the company’s stock valued at $167,749,000 after buying an additional 90,974 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 1.6% during the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,948,665 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,385,000 after buying an additional 46,860 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 25.3% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,115,384 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,185,000 after buying an additional 225,201 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 150.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 850,463 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,396,000 after acquiring an additional 510,283 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

StepStone Group Stock Up 0.2 %

STEP stock opened at $56.21 on Friday. StepStone Group LP has a 52 week low of $25.06 and a 52 week high of $57.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.22 billion, a PE ratio of 62.46 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $51.25 and a 200 day moving average of $43.26.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $186.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $181.15 million. StepStone Group’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.26 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that StepStone Group LP will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Investors of record on Friday, August 30th were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.71%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 30th. This is an increase from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is 106.67%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $46.00 to $51.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on StepStone Group from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. UBS Group lifted their price target on StepStone Group from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on StepStone Group from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.88.

About StepStone Group

StepStone Group LP. is an investment firm specializing in direct, fund of funds, secondary direct, and secondary indirect investments. For direct investment, it seeks to invest in venture debt, incubation, mezzanine, distressed/vulture, seed/startup, early venture, mid venture, late venture, emerging growth, later stage, turnaround, growth capital, industry consolidation, recapitalization, private equity and buyout investments in mature and middle market companies.