Acadian Asset Management LLC Buys Shares of 4,501 StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,501 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in STEP. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in StepStone Group in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $111,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S acquired a new position in shares of StepStone Group in the first quarter worth $149,000. Versor Investments LP purchased a new stake in shares of StepStone Group during the second quarter worth $303,000. MQS Management LLC acquired a new stake in StepStone Group during the first quarter valued at $243,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC grew its stake in StepStone Group by 10.8% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 9,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $354,000 after purchasing an additional 963 shares in the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays lifted their price target on StepStone Group from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $46.00 to $51.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $45.88.

StepStone Group Price Performance

Shares of STEP opened at $56.21 on Friday. StepStone Group LP has a one year low of $25.06 and a one year high of $57.31. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $51.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $43.26. The company has a market capitalization of $6.22 billion, a PE ratio of 62.46 and a beta of 1.28.

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

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This is a positive change from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. StepStone Group’s payout ratio is 106.67%.

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.