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

StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 7th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid 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 1.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th.

StepStone Group has raised its dividend by an average of 35.7% annually over the last three years. StepStone Group has a payout ratio of 38.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect StepStone Group to earn $2.02 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 47.5%.

StepStone Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:STEP opened at $64.48 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $7.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -38.15 and a beta of 1.31. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $61.33 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $58.59. StepStone Group has a 52-week low of $32.58 and a 52-week high of $70.38.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.01. StepStone Group had a negative net margin of 11.29% and a positive return on equity of 11.53%. The company had revenue of $271.68 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $215.51 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.26 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that StepStone Group will post 1.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

STEP has been the subject of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on StepStone Group from $64.00 to $70.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $71.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on StepStone Group from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $68.36.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 729 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.85, for a total transaction of $50,191.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 2,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,578.30. This trade represents a 25.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Michael I. Mccabe sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.25, for a total transaction of $257,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 686,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,108,653. The trade was a 0.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 29,820 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,856. 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.