StepStone Group LP Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.24 (NASDAQ:STEP)

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 7th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of 0.24 per share on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.48%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th.

StepStone Group has raised its dividend by an average of 35.7% per year over the last three years. StepStone Group has a payout ratio of 38.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect StepStone Group to earn $2.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.5%.

StepStone Group Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of STEP stock traded up $0.97 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $64.93. 457,204 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 455,532. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $61.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.48. StepStone Group has a 52-week low of $32.58 and a 52-week high of $70.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 108.45 and a beta of 1.31.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $271.68 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $215.51 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.26 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that StepStone Group will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

STEP has been the subject of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Evercore ISI cut their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $71.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 17th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $72.00 to $66.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $64.00 to $70.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $67.93.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 729 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.85, for a total value of $50,191.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,578.30. This represents a 25.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO David Y. Park sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.21, for a total transaction of $204,630.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 29,820 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,856. Insiders own 18.44% of the company’s stock.

StepStone Group Company Profile

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.