Analysts Set StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) Price Target at $54.69

Shares of StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the eight brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $54.69.

A number of research firms recently commented on STEP. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price 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. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price 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. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $51.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th.

StepStone Group Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ STEP traded down $1.18 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $60.13. The company had a trading volume of 386,916 shares, compared to its average volume of 566,629. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $57.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $48.30. The stock has a market cap of $6.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 79.12 and a beta of 1.28. StepStone Group has a 52-week low of $25.06 and a 52-week high of $62.99.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $186.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $181.15 million. The company's quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.26 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that StepStone Group will post 1.85 EPS for the current year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th were issued a $0.24 dividend. This is a positive change 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 1.60%. StepStone Group's dividend payout ratio is 126.32%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in StepStone Group by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,270,144 shares of the company's stock valued at $167,749,000 after acquiring an additional 90,974 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake 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 increased its stake 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. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of StepStone Group by 8.1% during the 2nd 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 last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 608,829 shares of the company's stock valued at $21,760,000 after buying an additional 6,052 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.