StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Announces Earnings Results

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP - Get Free Report) released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The company reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.03), Zacks reports. StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 11.53% and a negative net margin of 11.29%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.44 EPS.

StepStone Group Trading Down 4.1 %

STEP stock traded down $2.67 during trading on Monday, reaching $61.81. The stock had a trading volume of 588,085 shares, compared to its average volume of 475,296. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $61.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.73. The company has a market capitalization of $7.12 billion, a P/E ratio of -36.57 and a beta of 1.31. StepStone Group has a 1-year low of $32.58 and a 1-year high of $70.38.

StepStone Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. StepStone Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -56.80%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO David Y. Park sold 3,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.21, for a total value of $204,630.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,251 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,381,320.71. This represents a 12.90 % 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, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 729 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.85, for a total transaction of $50,191.65. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2,158 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $148,578.30. This represents a 25.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 29,820 shares of company stock worth $1,908,856 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 18.44% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Oppenheimer upped their price target on StepStone Group from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. 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. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, StepStone Group has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $69.21.

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.