Morgan Stanley Has Lowered Expectations for StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Stock Price

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) had its target price lowered by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $66.00 to $51.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price indicates a potential upside of 6.67% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on STEP. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on StepStone Group from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $69.00 to $48.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, StepStone Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $64.21.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:STEP opened at $47.81 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.54 billion, a PE ratio of -28.29 and a beta of 1.36. StepStone Group has a 52-week low of $34.64 and a 52-week high of $70.38. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $54.40 and a 200 day moving average of $59.28.

Insider Transactions at StepStone Group

In other StepStone Group news, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 538 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.00, for a total transaction of $33,894.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,386 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $87,318. This represents a 27.96 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.43, for a total value of $614,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 110,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,757,300. This represents a 8.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 18.44% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of StepStone Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in StepStone Group by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,938,181 shares of the company’s stock worth $401,582,000 after purchasing an additional 411,133 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in StepStone Group by 19.0% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,599,875 shares of the company’s stock worth $324,122,000 after buying an additional 895,521 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in StepStone Group by 11.5% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,542,270 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,027,000 after buying an additional 366,154 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in StepStone Group by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,902,366 shares of the company’s stock worth $110,109,000 after buying an additional 14,888 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in StepStone Group by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,711,872 shares of the company’s stock valued at $99,083,000 after acquiring an additional 77,490 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.