StepStone Group LP (STEP) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.24 on March 14th

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 4th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of 0.24 per share on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th.

StepStone Group has increased its dividend payment by an average of 35.7% annually over the last three years. StepStone Group has a dividend payout ratio of 39.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect StepStone Group to earn $2.04 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.1%.

StepStone Group Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of STEP stock opened at $57.83 on Wednesday. StepStone Group has a 1-year low of $32.58 and a 1-year high of $70.38. The stock has a market cap of $6.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -34.22 and a beta of 1.31. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $61.02 and a 200-day moving average of $59.81.

Insider Activity

In other StepStone Group news, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 4,000 shares of the firm’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 value of $257,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 686,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,108,653. This trade represents a 0.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 22,091 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 157,909 shares in the company, valued at $9,986,165.16. The trade was a 12.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,629 shares of company stock worth $2,302,229 in the last three months. Company insiders own 18.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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