Morgan Stanley Raises StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Price Target to $65.00

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) had its price objective lifted by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $60.00 to $65.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on STEP. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $51.50 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on StepStone Group from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. UBS Group raised their price target on StepStone Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $51.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, StepStone Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.43.

StepStone Group Price Performance

StepStone Group stock opened at $65.00 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 108.33 and a beta of 1.27. StepStone Group has a 12-month low of $25.06 and a 12-month high of $70.38. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $59.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $50.49.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other StepStone Group news, CFO David Y. Park sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,381,320.71. This trade represents a 12.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 729 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,578.30. The trade was a 25.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.44% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of StepStone Group

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in STEP. FMR LLC grew its holdings in StepStone Group by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,999,819 shares of the company’s stock valued at $227,310,000 after purchasing an additional 141,637 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 12.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,401,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $136,451,000 after acquiring an additional 265,240 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in StepStone Group by 17.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,457,690 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,856,000 after purchasing an additional 216,029 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in StepStone Group by 25.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,115,384 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,185,000 after purchasing an additional 225,201 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of StepStone Group by 150.0% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 850,463 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,396,000 after purchasing an additional 510,283 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

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.