Wasatch Advisors LP Lowers Holdings in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

Wasatch Advisors LP trimmed its holdings in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) by 35.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,123,180 shares of the company’s stock after selling 605,610 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP owned about 1.02% of StepStone Group worth $63,830,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in STEP. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 150.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 850,463 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,396,000 after acquiring an additional 510,283 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 991.1% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 291,530 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,378,000 after acquiring an additional 264,811 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 25.3% in the second 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 in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 3.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,999,819 shares of the company’s stock valued at $227,310,000 after acquiring an additional 141,637 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board purchased a new stake in shares of StepStone Group in the second quarter worth about $5,254,000. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 729 shares of the company’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 approximately $148,578.30. This represents a 25.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO David Y. Park sold 3,000 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,251 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,381,320.71. This represents a 12.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 18.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $51.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, StepStone Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.36.

StepStone Group Price Performance

Shares of STEP stock opened at $65.89 on Friday. StepStone Group LP has a 1 year low of $25.06 and a 1 year high of $70.38. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $52.49. The company has a market cap of $7.59 billion, a PE ratio of 109.82 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.46%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is 160.00%.

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.