State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Invests $1.98 Million in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D purchased a new position in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund purchased 43,062 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,976,000.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. American International Group Inc. raised its position in shares of StepStone Group by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. American International Group Inc. now owns 27,152 shares of the company’s stock worth $970,000 after purchasing an additional 322 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in StepStone Group by 10.8% in the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 9,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $354,000 after buying an additional 963 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in StepStone Group by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 288,459 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,309,000 after buying an additional 1,061 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System raised its position in StepStone Group by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 15,281 shares of the company’s stock worth $701,000 after buying an additional 1,195 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC raised its position in StepStone Group by 9.0% in the 2nd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 28,967 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,329,000 after buying an additional 2,383 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

STEP has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $46.00 to $51.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.88.

StepStone Group Stock Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ STEP opened at $56.21 on Friday. StepStone Group LP has a 52 week low of $25.06 and a 52 week high of $57.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.46 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $51.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $43.26.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.48 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. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.26 EPS. StepStone Group’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that StepStone Group LP will post 1.83 EPS for the current year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This is a boost 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 1.71%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 106.67%.

StepStone Group 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.