StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Hits New 12-Month High at $38.31

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $38.31 and last traded at $38.27, with a volume of 42082 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $37.78.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on STEP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $40.00 to $49.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. TheStreet downgraded shares of StepStone Group from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $28.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.21.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

The company’s fifty day moving average is $35.04 and its 200-day moving average is $31.94. The company has a market capitalization of $4.23 billion, a PE ratio of 42.56 and a beta of 1.23.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of ($14.61) million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $142.29 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that StepStone Group LP will post 1.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at StepStone Group

In other StepStone Group news, Director Thomas Keck sold 3,694 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.47, for a total transaction of $131,026.18. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 200,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,120,602.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, Director Thomas Keck sold 3,694 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.47, for a total value of $131,026.18. Following the sale, the director now owns 200,750 shares in the company, valued at $7,120,602.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder James Lim sold 9,008 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.06, for a total transaction of $315,820.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 6,388,746 shares in the company, valued at approximately $223,989,434.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 91,514 shares of company stock valued at $3,233,084 in the last three months. 18.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in StepStone Group by 7.7% during the first quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 36,225 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,295,000 after buying an additional 2,587 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S purchased a new stake in shares of StepStone Group during the first quarter valued at $149,000. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 1.6% during the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,948,665 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,385,000 after purchasing an additional 46,860 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 74.3% during the first quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 50,099 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,791,000 after purchasing an additional 21,354 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,270,144 shares of the company’s stock valued at $167,749,000 after purchasing an additional 90,974 shares during the period. 55.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

StepStone Group Company Profile

StepStone Group LP. is an investment firm specializing in direct, fund of funds, secondary direct, and secondary indirect investments. For direct investment, it seeks to invest in venture debt, incubation, mezzanine, distressed/vulture, seed/startup, early venture, mid venture, late venture, emerging growth, later stage, turnaround, growth capital, industry consolidation, recapitalization, private equity and buyout investments in mature and middle market companies.