StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Shares Gap Down – Time to Sell?

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $64.85, but opened at $60.03. StepStone Group shares last traded at $65.98, with a volume of 77,241 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on STEP shares. Barclays boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $51.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $51.50 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.71.

StepStone Group Trading Up 4.9 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $7.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 89.51 and a beta of 1.27. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $58.20 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.44.

StepStone Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be paid a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 126.32%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $850,000. Swiss National Bank lifted its position in StepStone Group by 5.0% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 112,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,410,000 after purchasing an additional 5,400 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 0.9% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 127,742 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,260,000 after purchasing an additional 1,125 shares during the period. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 10.2% in the third quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 9,421 shares of the company’s stock worth $535,000 after purchasing an additional 871 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of StepStone Group in the third quarter worth $269,000. 55.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About StepStone Group

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.