StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Hits New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $61.74 and last traded at $60.77, with a volume of 46129 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $60.28.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on STEP. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $51.50 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Barclays lifted their price target on StepStone Group from $51.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $54.69.

StepStone Group Stock Up 1.3 %

The company has a market cap of $6.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 80.15 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $56.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $47.33.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $186.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $181.15 million. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.26 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that StepStone Group LP will post 1.85 EPS for the current year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th were paid a $0.24 dividend. This is a boost from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is 126.32%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,270,144 shares of the company’s stock valued at $167,749,000 after buying an additional 90,974 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,948,665 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,385,000 after acquiring an additional 46,860 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 25.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,115,384 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,185,000 after purchasing an additional 225,201 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 150.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 850,463 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,396,000 after purchasing an additional 510,283 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of StepStone Group by 8.1% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 800,909 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,753,000 after purchasing an additional 60,339 shares during the period. 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.