William Blair Investment Management LLC Raises Stock Holdings in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) by 16.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 491,183 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 69,513 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in StepStone Group were worth $28,430,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in STEP. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. purchased a new stake in StepStone Group in the third quarter valued at about $462,000. KBC Group NV raised its stake in StepStone Group by 35.7% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,840 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,000 after buying an additional 484 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in StepStone Group in the third quarter valued at about $269,000. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC raised its stake in StepStone Group by 10.2% in the third quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 9,421 shares of the company’s stock valued at $535,000 after buying an additional 871 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake in StepStone Group by 0.9% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 127,742 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,260,000 after buying an additional 1,125 shares during the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

StepStone Group Stock Down 0.2 %

StepStone Group stock opened at $54.54 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $6.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -32.27 and a beta of 1.33. StepStone Group LP has a 52 week low of $33.18 and a 52 week high of $70.38. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $59.68 and its 200 day moving average price is $59.99.

StepStone Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -56.80%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 538 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.00, for a total transaction of $33,894.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,386 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $87,318. This trade represents a 27.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.43, for a total value of $614,300.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 110,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,757,300. This trade represents a 8.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

STEP has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays increased their price target on StepStone Group from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on StepStone Group from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on StepStone Group from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on StepStone Group from $64.00 to $70.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $69.21.

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.