StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Shares Gap Down – What’s Next?

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) shares gapped down before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $64.85, but opened at $60.03. StepStone Group shares last traded at $65.98, with a volume of 77,241 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on STEP shares. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on StepStone Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Barclays increased their price objective on StepStone Group from $51.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $61.71.

StepStone Group Trading Up 1.8 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $7.30 billion, a PE ratio of 86.01 and a beta of 1.27. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $57.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.22.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $186.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $181.15 million. StepStone Group’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.26 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that StepStone Group LP will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StepStone Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STEP. Swiss National Bank grew its position in shares of StepStone Group by 5.0% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 112,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,410,000 after purchasing an additional 5,400 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in StepStone Group by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 127,742 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,260,000 after buying an additional 1,125 shares during the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC increased its stake in StepStone Group by 10.2% during the 3rd quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 9,421 shares of the company’s stock worth $535,000 after buying an additional 871 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of StepStone Group during the third quarter valued at approximately $269,000. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its position in shares of StepStone Group by 35.7% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,840 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,000 after acquiring an additional 484 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.54% of the company’s stock.

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.