StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) 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.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $51.50 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group raised their price target on StepStone Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays upped their price objective on StepStone Group from $51.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on StepStone Group from $56.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on StepStone Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.71.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $57.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.22. The firm has a market cap of $7.30 billion, a PE ratio of 86.01 and a beta of 1.27.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $186.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $181.15 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.26 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that StepStone Group LP will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of STEP. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in StepStone Group by 150.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 850,463 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,396,000 after buying an additional 510,283 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 991.1% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 291,530 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,378,000 after purchasing an additional 264,811 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 25.3% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,115,384 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,185,000 after purchasing an additional 225,201 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board purchased a new position in StepStone Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $5,254,000. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake in StepStone Group by 333.4% in the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 126,617 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,810,000 after buying an additional 97,401 shares in the last quarter. 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.