Oppenheimer Increases StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Price Target to $85.00

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Free Report) had its price target raised by Oppenheimer from $81.00 to $85.00 in a research report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the stock.

STEP has been the subject of several other reports. Evercore ISI cut their price target on StepStone Group from $71.00 to $63.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays cut their price target on StepStone Group from $72.00 to $66.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $64.00 to $70.50 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $69.21.

StepStone Group Price Performance

Shares of STEP stock traded down $1.87 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $59.94. 565,258 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 478,643. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $61.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $58.82. StepStone Group has a 1-year low of $32.58 and a 1-year high of $70.38. The firm has a market cap of $6.90 billion, a PE ratio of -35.47 and a beta of 1.31.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. StepStone Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -56.80%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Trading of StepStone Group

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in StepStone Group by 6.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,938,181 shares of the company's stock worth $401,582,000 after buying an additional 411,133 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in StepStone Group during the fourth quarter worth approximately $793,000. Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in StepStone Group by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 84,687 shares of the company's stock worth $4,902,000 after buying an additional 7,524 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in StepStone Group during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,727,000. Finally, Summit Global Investments purchased a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $547,000. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.