Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Stock Price

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) had its price target upped by Morgan Stanley from $60.00 to $65.00 in a report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on STEP. UBS Group upped their price target on StepStone Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $51.50 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target 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. Barclays raised their price objective on StepStone Group from $51.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note 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, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.43.

StepStone Group Trading Down 0.6 %

NASDAQ STEP opened at $65.00 on Thursday. StepStone Group has a 12 month low of $25.06 and a 12 month high of $70.38. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $50.70. The company has a market capitalization of $7.19 billion, a PE ratio of 108.34 and a beta of 1.27.

StepStone Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is 160.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling at StepStone Group

In other StepStone Group news, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 729 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.85, for a total transaction of $50,191.65. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO David Y. Park sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.21, for a total value of $204,630.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,381,320.71. The trade was a 12.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 18.44% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of StepStone Group

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Amalgamated Bank raised its holdings in StepStone Group by 749.8% in the 2nd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 16,001 shares of the company’s stock valued at $734,000 after acquiring an additional 14,118 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in StepStone Group by 991.1% in the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 291,530 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,378,000 after purchasing an additional 264,811 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board acquired a new position in StepStone Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $5,254,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position 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 worth $51,185,000 after buying an additional 225,201 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 399.3% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 12,024 shares of the company’s stock worth $683,000 after buying an additional 9,616 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.