StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) Short Interest Update

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,040,000 shares, a growth of 25.1% from the August 15th total of 2,430,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 868,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.5 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StepStone Group

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. American International Group Inc. boosted its holdings in StepStone Group by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. American International Group Inc. now owns 27,152 shares of the company’s stock valued at $970,000 after purchasing an additional 322 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in StepStone Group by 10.8% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 9,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $354,000 after acquiring an additional 963 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in StepStone Group by 0.4% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 288,459 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,309,000 after acquiring an additional 1,061 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in StepStone Group by 3.8% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 32,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,472,000 after acquiring an additional 1,181 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System raised its position in StepStone Group by 8.5% in the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 15,281 shares of the company’s stock valued at $701,000 after purchasing an additional 1,195 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

StepStone Group Price Performance

NASDAQ STEP traded up $0.84 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $52.66. 68,897 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 559,826. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $50.29 and its 200-day moving average is $42.65. StepStone Group has a 52-week low of $25.06 and a 52-week high of $56.18. The company has a market capitalization of $5.83 billion, a PE ratio of 57.58 and a beta of 1.28.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $186.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $181.15 million. StepStone Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.26 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that StepStone Group will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This is a positive change from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is currently 106.67%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on STEP shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. UBS Group increased their price target on StepStone Group from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on StepStone Group from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on StepStone Group from $46.00 to $51.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on StepStone Group from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.88.

StepStone Group Company Profile

StepStone Group LP. is an investment firm specializing in direct, fund of funds, secondary direct, and secondary indirect investments. For direct investment, it seeks to invest in venture debt, incubation, mezzanine, distressed/vulture, seed/startup, early venture, mid venture, late venture, emerging growth, later stage, turnaround, growth capital, industry consolidation, recapitalization, private equity and buyout investments in mature and middle market companies.