Wasatch Advisors LP Sells 605,610 Shares of StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

Wasatch Advisors LP lowered its position in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) by 35.0% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,123,180 shares of the company’s stock after selling 605,610 shares during the quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP’s holdings in StepStone Group were worth $63,830,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of STEP. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in StepStone Group by 291.1% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 618 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 460 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in StepStone Group by 1,586.3% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 860 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after buying an additional 809 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in StepStone Group by 442.7% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 966 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 788 shares during the period. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd purchased a new stake in StepStone Group during the third quarter worth $63,000. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its holdings in StepStone Group by 190.4% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,000 after buying an additional 777 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

STEP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays upped their target price on StepStone Group from $51.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on StepStone Group from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on StepStone Group from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.36.

StepStone Group Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of STEP opened at $65.89 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $7.59 billion, a PE ratio of 109.82 and a beta of 1.27. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $61.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $52.49. StepStone Group LP has a 12 month low of $25.06 and a 12 month high of $70.38.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.46%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 160.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 729 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.85, for a total value of $50,191.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 2,158 shares in the company, valued at $148,578.30. This trade represents a 25.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO David Y. Park sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.21, for a total value of $204,630.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,251 shares in the company, valued at $1,381,320.71. This represents a 12.90 % 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 company insiders.

StepStone Group 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.