StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Given New $57.00 Price Target at The Goldman Sachs Group

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) had its price target raised by The Goldman Sachs Group from $51.50 to $57.00 in a research note released on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Barclays raised their price target on StepStone Group from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on StepStone Group from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Monday, July 15th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $47.19.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:STEP opened at $59.72 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $6.61 billion, a PE ratio of 66.36 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $52.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $44.77. StepStone Group has a 52-week low of $25.06 and a 52-week high of $60.00.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $186.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $181.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.26 earnings per share. StepStone Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that StepStone Group will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Investors of record on Friday, August 30th were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This is a positive change from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 106.67%.

Institutional Trading of StepStone Group

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its position in StepStone Group by 74.3% during the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 50,099 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,791,000 after purchasing an additional 21,354 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in StepStone Group by 27.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 628,532 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,006,000 after buying an additional 136,542 shares during the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank raised its stake in StepStone Group by 749.8% during the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 16,001 shares of the company’s stock worth $734,000 after buying an additional 14,118 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in StepStone Group by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,994,497 shares of the company’s stock valued at $222,635,000 after buying an additional 627,059 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in StepStone Group by 991.1% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 291,530 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,378,000 after acquiring an additional 264,811 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

About StepStone Group

StepStone Group LP. is an investment firm specializing in direct, fund of funds, secondary direct, and secondary indirect investments. For direct investment, it seeks to invest in venture debt, incubation, mezzanine, distressed/vulture, seed/startup, early venture, mid venture, late venture, emerging growth, later stage, turnaround, growth capital, industry consolidation, recapitalization, private equity and buyout investments in mature and middle market companies.