StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) to Issue $0.24 Quarterly Dividend

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 7th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of 0.24 per share on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.48%. The ex-dividend date 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 payout ratio of 38.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect StepStone Group to earn $2.02 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 47.5%.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

STEP stock traded up $0.97 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $64.93. 457,204 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 455,532. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $61.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.48. The company has a market cap of $7.48 billion, a PE ratio of 108.45 and a beta of 1.31. StepStone Group has a one year low of $32.58 and a one year high of $70.38.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $271.68 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $215.51 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.26 EPS. On average, analysts expect that StepStone Group will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 729 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.85, for a total transaction of $50,191.65. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 2,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,578.30. This represents a 25.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.25, for a total transaction of $257,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 686,516 shares in the company, valued at $44,108,653. This trade represents a 0.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 29,820 shares of company stock worth $1,908,856. Company insiders own 18.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on STEP shares. Barclays lowered their price target on StepStone Group from $72.00 to $66.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $64.00 to $70.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. UBS Group boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $67.93.

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.