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

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 4th,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 1.60%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th.

StepStone Group has raised its dividend by an average of 35.7% per year over the last three years. StepStone Group has a payout ratio of 38.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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 Down 3.0 %

STEP stock traded down $1.87 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $59.94. The company's stock had a trading volume of 565,258 shares, compared to its average volume of 478,643. The company has a market capitalization of $6.90 billion, a PE ratio of -35.47 and a beta of 1.31. StepStone Group has a 12 month low of $32.58 and a 12 month high of $70.38. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $61.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $58.82.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on STEP. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $64.00 to $70.50 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $69.21.

Insider Transactions at StepStone Group

In other StepStone Group news, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.25, for a total transaction of $257,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 686,516 shares of the company's stock, valued at $44,108,653. This represents a 0.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 22,091 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.24, for a total transaction of $1,397,034.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,909 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,986,165.16. This represents a 12.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.44% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.