StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Reaches New 52-Week High on Analyst Upgrade

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on the stock from $56.00 to $61.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. StepStone Group traded as high as $58.17 and last traded at $57.92, with a volume of 534010 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $56.83.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 15th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $51.50 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.19.

Institutional Trading of StepStone Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of STEP. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,994,497 shares of the company’s stock worth $222,635,000 after purchasing an additional 627,059 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 150.0% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 850,463 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,396,000 after purchasing an additional 510,283 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of StepStone Group by 991.1% during the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 291,530 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,378,000 after buying an additional 264,811 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of StepStone Group by 25.3% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of StepStone Group by 27.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 628,532 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,006,000 after buying an additional 136,542 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

The company’s 50-day moving average price is $52.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $44.39. The stock has a market cap of $6.41 billion, a PE ratio of 64.23 and a beta of 1.28.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.26 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that StepStone Group LP will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. This is a boost from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 106.67%.

StepStone Group Company Profile

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.