Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Raises Position in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,644 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 722 shares during the quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.’s holdings in StepStone Group were worth $784,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in StepStone Group in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $550,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB purchased a new position in StepStone Group in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $257,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 90.6% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 772,921 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,409,000 after purchasing an additional 367,507 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 30.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 21,974 shares of the company’s stock worth $694,000 after purchasing an additional 5,089 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in StepStone Group in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $365,000. 55.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

StepStone Group stock opened at $35.80 on Thursday. StepStone Group LP has a fifty-two week low of $19.83 and a fifty-two week high of $38.25. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $34.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.64. The company has a market capitalization of $3.95 billion, a PE ratio of 39.78 and a beta of 1.25.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.12. The company had revenue of ($14.61) million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $142.29 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that StepStone Group LP will post 1.11 earnings per share for the current year.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.35%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 93.33%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

STEP has been the topic of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $40.00 to $49.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $48.00 price target on the stock. TheStreet lowered shares of StepStone Group from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.21.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other StepStone Group 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 200,750 shares in the company, valued at $7,120,602.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other StepStone Group 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 200,750 shares in the company, valued at $7,120,602.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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 transaction, the insider now owns 6,388,746 shares of the company’s stock, 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 worth $3,233,084 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 18.50% of the company’s stock.

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.