StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Price Target Raised to $73.00

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) had its price objective raised by Oppenheimer from $56.00 to $73.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

STEP has been the subject of several other reports. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group lifted their price target on StepStone Group from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on StepStone Group from $51.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.44.

StepStone Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:STEP opened at $60.88 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $55.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $46.72. StepStone Group has a one year low of $25.06 and a one year high of $61.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.74 billion, a PE ratio of 67.64 and a beta of 1.28.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $186.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $181.15 million. The business’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.26 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that StepStone Group will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Investors of record on Friday, August 30th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This is a boost from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 106.67%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STEP. American International Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 1.2% in the first quarter. American International Group Inc. now owns 27,152 shares of the company’s stock valued at $970,000 after acquiring an additional 322 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in StepStone Group by 291.1% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 618 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 460 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in StepStone Group by 190.4% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 777 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of StepStone Group by 1,586.3% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 860 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 809 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 10.8% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 9,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $354,000 after purchasing an additional 963 shares during the period. 55.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.