StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) COO Jose Fernandez Sells 70,404 Shares of Stock

StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) COO Jose Fernandez sold 70,404 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.41, for a total value of $4,323,509.64. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 140,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,646,896.46. The trade was a 33.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

StepStone Group Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of NASDAQ STEP opened at $62.23 on Friday. StepStone Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $40.07 and a 12 month high of $68.40. The company has a market cap of $7.24 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.78 and a beta of 1.36. The business’s 50 day moving average is $63.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $59.88.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.05. StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 21.53% and a negative net margin of 40.06%.The company had revenue of $282.34 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $272.15 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.45 earnings per share. StepStone Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 28th will be given a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 28th. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -14.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. CWM LLC grew its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 14.0% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares during the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC boosted its position in StepStone Group by 0.9% in the second quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 24,785 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,376,000 after buying an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in StepStone Group by 35.5% during the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 916 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 240 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank grew its stake in StepStone Group by 1.1% during the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 22,017 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,150,000 after buying an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cim LLC increased its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 0.8% during the first quarter. Cim LLC now owns 32,066 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,675,000 after buying an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

STEP has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $73.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Zacks Research cut StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Barclays decreased their price objective on StepStone Group from $70.00 to $69.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 7th. Oppenheimer cut their target price on StepStone Group from $84.00 to $83.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets started coverage on StepStone Group in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $74.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $74.29.

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.