StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Given New $65.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

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

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. UBS Group upped their price objective on StepStone Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on StepStone Group from $51.50 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Barclays upped 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 upped their price objective on StepStone Group from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.43.

StepStone Group Price Performance

NASDAQ:STEP traded up $0.56 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $65.92. 83,590 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 573,628. StepStone Group has a twelve month low of $25.06 and a twelve month high of $70.38. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $59.21 and a 200 day moving average of $50.29. The stock has a market cap of $7.29 billion, a PE ratio of 108.93 and a beta of 1.27.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.46%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is 160.00%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 729 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.85, for a total transaction of $50,191.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2,158 shares in the company, valued at $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 available through the SEC website. Also, 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 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 18.44% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StepStone Group

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FMR LLC boosted its position in StepStone Group by 3.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,999,819 shares of the company’s stock worth $227,310,000 after purchasing an additional 141,637 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 225,201 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in StepStone Group by 150.0% during 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 during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of StepStone Group by 8.1% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 800,909 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,753,000 after acquiring an additional 60,339 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in StepStone Group by 16.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 596,851 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,919,000 after buying an additional 84,762 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.