StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) shares gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $63.96, but opened at $67.60. StepStone Group shares last traded at $65.07, with a volume of 123,282 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

STEP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on StepStone Group from $64.00 to $70.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on StepStone Group from $73.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $71.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on StepStone Group from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, UBS Group lifted 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. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $67.79.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $7.39 billion, a PE ratio of 106.92 and a beta of 1.31. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $61.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $58.48.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $271.68 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $215.51 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.26 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that StepStone Group LP will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 729 shares of the 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2,158 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,578.30. This trade represents a 25.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.25, for a total transaction of $257,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 686,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,108,653. The trade was a 0.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 29,820 shares of company stock worth $1,908,856 in the last 90 days. 18.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StepStone Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. 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 buying an additional 141,637 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of StepStone Group by 12.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,401,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $136,451,000 after purchasing an additional 265,240 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 17.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,457,690 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,856,000 after acquiring an additional 216,029 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in StepStone Group by 11.9% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 805,195 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,279,000 after acquiring an additional 85,904 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of StepStone Group in the fourth quarter worth $46,163,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

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.