StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Price Target Raised to $85.00 at Oppenheimer

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) had its price target boosted by Oppenheimer from $81.00 to $85.00 in a report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on STEP. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $64.00 to $70.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Barclays cut their price target on StepStone Group from $72.00 to $66.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on StepStone Group from $71.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of 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 given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, StepStone Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $68.36.

StepStone Group Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of STEP opened at $64.48 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $61.36 and its 200-day moving average is $58.48. StepStone Group has a 12-month low of $32.58 and a 12-month high of $70.38.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $271.68 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $215.51 million. StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 11.53% and a negative net margin of 11.29%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.26 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that StepStone Group will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is currently -56.80%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other StepStone Group news, CFO David Y. Park sold 3,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.21, for a total transaction of $204,630.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 20,251 shares in the company, valued at $1,381,320.71. The trade was a 12.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 22,091 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.24, for a total transaction of $1,397,034.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 157,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,986,165.16. This represents a 12.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 29,820 shares of company stock worth $1,908,856 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 18.44% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Amundi grew its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 26.7% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares during the period. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC grew its position in StepStone Group by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 9,578 shares of the company’s stock valued at $554,000 after acquiring an additional 157 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in StepStone Group by 25.5% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,079 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in StepStone Group by 36.6% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 844 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System increased its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 30,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,771,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

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.