StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) Short Interest Update

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,040,000 shares, an increase of 25.1% from the August 15th total of 2,430,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 868,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.5 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on STEP shares. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. UBS Group boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. Evercore ISI upped their target price on StepStone Group from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Barclays raised their price target on StepStone Group from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on StepStone Group from $46.00 to $51.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.88.

StepStone Group Stock Down 0.1 %

NASDAQ:STEP traded down $0.05 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $51.82. The stock had a trading volume of 829,245 shares, compared to its average volume of 581,967. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $50.29 and a 200 day moving average of $42.65. The company has a market capitalization of $5.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.58 and a beta of 1.28. StepStone Group has a one year low of $25.06 and a one year high of $56.18.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $186.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $181.15 million. StepStone Group’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.26 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that StepStone Group will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This is an increase from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.85%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 106.67%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StepStone Group

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of STEP. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in StepStone Group by 8.9% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 563,606 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,940,000 after buying an additional 46,107 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of StepStone Group by 74.3% in the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 50,099 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,791,000 after acquiring an additional 21,354 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 27.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 628,532 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,006,000 after purchasing an additional 136,542 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in StepStone Group by 41.7% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 16,402 shares of the company’s stock valued at $522,000 after purchasing an additional 4,829 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 627,059 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

StepStone Group Company Profile

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.