Empowered Funds LLC Has $6.11 Million Stock Position in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) by 15.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 105,480 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,340 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in StepStone Group were worth $6,105,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of StepStone Group by 12.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,401,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $136,451,000 after buying an additional 265,240 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in StepStone Group by 17.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,457,690 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,856,000 after purchasing an additional 216,029 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,999,819 shares of the company’s stock worth $227,310,000 after purchasing an additional 141,637 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 43.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 417,845 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,746,000 after purchasing an additional 126,315 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 368.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 112,019 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,366,000 after purchasing an additional 88,095 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at StepStone Group

In other StepStone Group news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 22,091 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.24, for a total transaction of $1,397,034.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 157,909 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,986,165.16. The trade was a 12.27 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.25, for a total value of $257,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 686,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,108,653. This trade represents a 0.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

STEP stock opened at $61.81 on Tuesday. StepStone Group LP has a fifty-two week low of $32.58 and a fifty-two week high of $70.38. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.73. The company has a market cap of $7.12 billion, a P/E ratio of -36.57 and a beta of 1.31.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently -56.80%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on STEP. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Barclays boosted their price objective on StepStone Group from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI raised their target price on StepStone Group from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. UBS Group boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $64.00 to $70.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.21.

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.