StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ:STEP – Get Rating) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,050,000 shares, an increase of 40.4% from the February 13th total of 747,600 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 267,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.9 days.

StepStone Group Price Performance

Shares of STEP stock traded down $3.53 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $23.60. The stock had a trading volume of 1,324,342 shares, compared to its average volume of 278,347. StepStone Group has a fifty-two week low of $22.39 and a fifty-two week high of $35.16. The firm has a market cap of $2.58 billion, a PE ratio of -295.00 and a beta of 1.44. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $28.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.01.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 9th. The company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.27. The firm had revenue of $148.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $142.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.42 EPS. The firm's revenue was down 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that StepStone Group will post 1.28 EPS for the current year.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 28th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 27th. StepStone Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -1,000.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling at StepStone Group

In other StepStone Group news, major shareholder James Lim sold 1,740 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.02, for a total value of $53,974.80. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,895,339 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $213,893,415.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, major shareholder James Lim sold 1,740 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.02, for a total value of $53,974.80. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,895,339 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $213,893,415.78. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO David Y. Park sold 2,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.52, for a total transaction of $68,448.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 31,864 shares in the company, valued at $908,761.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 121,075 shares of company stock valued at $3,687,457. Insiders own 20.01% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of StepStone Group

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 9.2% in the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,437,768 shares of the company's stock valued at $141,545,000 after purchasing an additional 460,189 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,793,131 shares of the company's stock valued at $158,461,000 after purchasing an additional 61,820 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,081,525 shares of the company's stock valued at $102,772,000 after purchasing an additional 55,342 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 3,034,387 shares of the company's stock valued at $76,406,000 after purchasing an additional 28,059 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 6.9% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,921,135 shares of the company's stock valued at $96,573,000 after purchasing an additional 189,267 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.82% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on STEP shares. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $29.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, February 10th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $29.00 to $28.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $37.00 to $36.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $33.80.

StepStone Group Company Profile

(Get Rating)

StepStone Group Inc 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, and buyout investments in mature and middle market companies.

Further Reading

• Get a free copy of the StockNews.com research report on StepStone Group (STEP)
• What the SVB Financial Collapse Means for U.S. Banks
• MarketBeat Week in Review – 3/6 – 3/10
• 2 Offshore Drilling Stocks Set to Extract Big Profits
• Three Staples Stocks With Double-Digit Upside Ahead
• Can Investors Trust Consumers to Lift American Outdoor Brands?

Receive News & Ratings for StepStone Group Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for StepStone Group and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.