L & S Advisors Inc Takes Position in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

L & S Advisors Inc purchased a new stake in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 7,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in STEP. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,938,181 shares of the company’s stock worth $401,582,000 after acquiring an additional 411,133 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in StepStone Group by 3.7% during 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in StepStone Group by 12.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,401,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $136,451,000 after purchasing an additional 265,240 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in StepStone Group by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,711,872 shares of the company’s stock worth $99,083,000 after purchasing an additional 77,490 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in StepStone Group by 17.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,457,690 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,856,000 after purchasing an additional 216,029 shares during the period. 55.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.43, for a total transaction of $614,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 110,000 shares in the company, valued at $6,757,300. The trade was a 8.33 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 538 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.00, for a total value of $33,894.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $87,318. This trade represents a 27.96 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.44% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on STEP shares. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on StepStone Group from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on StepStone Group from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.21.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

STEP opened at $51.80 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $6.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -30.65 and a beta of 1.33. StepStone Group LP has a one year low of $33.92 and a one year high of $70.38. The business’s fifty day moving average is $58.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $60.10.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.85%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -56.80%.

StepStone Group 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.