Proficio Capital Partners LLC Acquires New Shares in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 16,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $941,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in StepStone Group by 25.5% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,079 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in StepStone Group by 36.6% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 844 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 30,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,771,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 35.7% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,840 shares of the company’s stock worth $105,000 after purchasing an additional 484 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in StepStone Group during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other StepStone Group news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.43, for a total value of $614,300.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 110,000 shares in the company, valued at $6,757,300. This trade represents a 8.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 538 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.00, for a total value of $33,894.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $87,318. This represents a 27.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 18.44% of the company’s stock.

StepStone Group Trading Down 2.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ STEP opened at $52.26 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $6.06 billion, a P/E ratio of -30.92 and a beta of 1.33. StepStone Group LP has a 12-month low of $32.58 and a 12-month high of $70.38. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.99.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is currently -56.80%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on STEP. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on StepStone Group from $64.00 to $70.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on StepStone Group from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on StepStone Group from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Barclays upped their price target on StepStone Group from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on StepStone Group from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $69.21.

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.