StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Price Target Increased to $60.00 by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) had its price target raised by Morgan Stanley from $52.00 to $60.00 in a research report report published on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

STEP has been the subject of a number of other reports. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Barclays increased their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $51.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on StepStone Group from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $51.50 to $57.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $49.44.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

Shares of STEP stock opened at $59.97 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 78.91 and a beta of 1.28. StepStone Group has a 52-week low of $25.06 and a 52-week high of $61.39. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $54.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $46.00.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $186.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $181.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.26 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that StepStone Group will post 1.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 30th. This is an increase from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 126.32%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STEP. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in StepStone Group by 291.1% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 618 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 460 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its position in StepStone Group by 190.4% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 777 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in StepStone Group in the second quarter worth about $111,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S bought a new stake in shares of StepStone Group during the 1st quarter valued at about $149,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of StepStone Group during the 2nd quarter valued at about $206,000. Institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

About StepStone Group

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.