StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.05 EPS

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.05, FiscalAI reports. StepStone Group had a negative net margin of 17.10% and a positive return on equity of 16.07%. The company had revenue of $282.34 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $272.15 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.45 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.2% on a year-over-year basis.

StepStone Group Price Performance

STEP stock opened at $62.24 on Friday. StepStone Group has a 12 month low of $40.07 and a 12 month high of $70.38. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $63.30 and its 200 day moving average is $59.40. The company has a market capitalization of $7.25 billion, a PE ratio of -20.21 and a beta of 1.36.

Insider Transactions at StepStone Group

In other StepStone Group news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total transaction of $614,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,072,000. This trade represents a 16.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.26, for a total value of $63,260.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,020 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,392,985.20. This trade represents a 4.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 31,000 shares of company stock worth $1,968,060 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 16.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of StepStone Group

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STEP. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its holdings in StepStone Group by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,111,135 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,668,000 after acquiring an additional 16,410 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 0.7% during the second quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 705,380 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,149,000 after purchasing an additional 5,249 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in StepStone Group by 125.7% during the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 472,270 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,211,000 after buying an additional 263,015 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in StepStone Group by 21.6% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 357,281 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,661,000 after buying an additional 63,519 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in StepStone Group by 12.0% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 315,806 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,527,000 after buying an additional 33,747 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays set a $70.00 price objective on shares of StepStone Group in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $64.00 to $83.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 17th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StepStone Group in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $74.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on StepStone Group from $84.00 to $83.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, StepStone Group currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $74.43.

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.