Fox Run Management L.L.C. Acquires New Shares in StepStone Group Inc. $STEP

Fox Run Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in shares of StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 21,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,184,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 6.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,419,566 shares of the company’s stock valued at $387,524,000 after purchasing an additional 481,385 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in StepStone Group by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,038,665 shares of the company’s stock worth $315,400,000 after buying an additional 438,790 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in StepStone Group by 13.2% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,011,015 shares of the company’s stock valued at $209,495,000 after acquiring an additional 468,745 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,580,157 shares of the company’s stock valued at $186,992,000 after acquiring an additional 94,477 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 269.8% during the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,962,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $154,748,000 after acquiring an additional 2,161,548 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.34, for a total value of $643,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 30,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,930,200. This represents a 25.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO David Y. Park sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.26, for a total value of $63,260.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 22,020 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,392,985.20. The trade was a 4.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,968,060. Corporate insiders own 16.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of StepStone Group in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $74.00 price objective on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $73.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Barclays dropped their price target on StepStone Group from $70.00 to $69.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised StepStone Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $64.00 to $83.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 17th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded StepStone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $74.29.

StepStone Group Stock Down 1.8%

Shares of STEP opened at $61.14 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $63.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $59.60. StepStone Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $40.07 and a 52 week high of $70.38. The stock has a market cap of $7.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.64 and a beta of 1.36.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $282.34 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $272.15 million. StepStone Group had a positive return on equity of 18.31% and a negative net margin of 40.06%.The firm’s revenue was up 35.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.45 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that StepStone Group Inc. will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 28th will be given a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 28th. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently -36.36%.

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.