Evercore ISI Issues Positive Forecast for StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Stock Price

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) had its price target hoisted by Evercore ISI from $63.00 to $69.00 in a research note published on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the stock.

STEP has been the subject of several other research reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on StepStone Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays lifted their target price on StepStone Group from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on StepStone Group from $64.00 to $70.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on StepStone Group from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on StepStone Group from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $69.21.

StepStone Group Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of STEP opened at $59.83 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $6.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -35.40 and a beta of 1.31. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $61.21 and a 200-day moving average of $58.90. StepStone Group has a 52 week low of $32.58 and a 52 week high of $70.38.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently -56.80%.

Insider Activity at StepStone Group

In related news, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.25, for a total transaction of $257,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 686,516 shares in the company, valued at $44,108,653. The trade was a 0.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 22,091 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.24, for a total value of $1,397,034.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 157,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,986,165.16. This trade represents a 12.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 18.44% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in StepStone Group by 6.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,938,181 shares of the company’s stock worth $401,582,000 after acquiring an additional 411,133 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in StepStone Group by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,999,819 shares of the company’s stock worth $227,310,000 after acquiring an additional 141,637 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in StepStone Group by 12.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,401,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $136,451,000 after acquiring an additional 265,240 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in StepStone Group by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,711,872 shares of the company’s stock worth $99,083,000 after acquiring an additional 77,490 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in StepStone Group by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,508,666 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,341,000 after acquiring an additional 50,976 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

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.