KBC Group NV Decreases Stock Holdings in StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

KBC Group NV lowered its stake in StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) by 35.7% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,951 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,081 shares during the period. KBC Group NV’s holdings in StepStone Group were worth $108,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Fox Run Management L.L.C. purchased a new position in shares of StepStone Group in the 2nd quarter worth $1,184,000. Bryce Point Capital LLC lifted its holdings in StepStone Group by 17.5% in the second quarter. Bryce Point Capital LLC now owns 18,619 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,033,000 after acquiring an additional 2,770 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in StepStone Group by 10.0% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 10,727 shares of the company’s stock worth $595,000 after purchasing an additional 971 shares during the last quarter. Versor Investments LP purchased a new position in StepStone Group in the second quarter worth about $811,000. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 8.2% during the 2nd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 10,343 shares of the company’s stock valued at $574,000 after purchasing an additional 788 shares during the period. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on STEP. Zacks Research cut shares of StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $73.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $61.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $64.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on StepStone Group from $70.00 to $69.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, StepStone Group currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $74.29.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other StepStone Group news, COO Jose A. Fernandez sold 70,402 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.30, for a total value of $4,386,044.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.34, for a total transaction of $643,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 30,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,930,200. This trade represents a 25.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 171,806 shares of company stock worth $10,677,614. 16.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

StepStone Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STEP opened at $60.53 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $7.16 billion, a PE ratio of -7.57 and a beta of 1.36. StepStone Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $40.07 and a 1 year high of $68.40. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $63.24 and a 200-day moving average price of $60.25.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.05. StepStone Group had a negative net margin of 40.06% and a positive return on equity of 21.53%. The company had revenue of $282.34 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $272.15 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.45 EPS. StepStone Group’s quarterly revenue was up 35.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

StepStone Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 28th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 28th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is -14.00%.

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.