StepStone Group LP Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.24 (NASDAQ:STEP)

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 4th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of 0.24 per share on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th.

StepStone Group has increased its dividend payment by an average of 35.7% annually over the last three years. StepStone Group has a payout ratio of 39.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect StepStone Group to earn $2.04 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.1%.

StepStone Group Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of StepStone Group stock opened at $57.83 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.71 billion, a P/E ratio of -34.22 and a beta of 1.31. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $61.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $59.81. StepStone Group has a 12-month low of $32.58 and a 12-month high of $70.38.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on STEP. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on StepStone Group from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on StepStone Group from $64.00 to $70.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on StepStone Group from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $69.21.

Insider Activity at StepStone Group

In related news, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 10,000 shares of StepStone Group stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.43, for a total value of $614,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 110,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,757,300. This trade represents a 8.33 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.25, for a total value of $257,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 686,516 shares in the company, valued at $44,108,653. This represents a 0.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 36,629 shares of company stock worth $2,302,229. Insiders own 18.44% of the company’s stock.

StepStone Group Company 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.