Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Acquires 17,995 Shares of StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) by 62.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 46,679 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 17,995 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in StepStone Group were worth $2,702,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in STEP. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 12.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,401,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $136,451,000 after acquiring an additional 265,240 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in StepStone Group by 17.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,457,690 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,856,000 after purchasing an additional 216,029 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 3.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,999,819 shares of the company’s stock valued at $227,310,000 after purchasing an additional 141,637 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of StepStone Group by 43.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 417,845 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,746,000 after purchasing an additional 126,315 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 368.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 112,019 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,366,000 after buying an additional 88,095 shares during the last quarter. 55.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on StepStone Group from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. 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. Barclays boosted 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, February 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on StepStone Group from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $69.21.

StepStone Group Trading Down 1.4 %

NASDAQ STEP opened at $58.24 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $6.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -34.46 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a 50 day moving average of $61.05 and a 200-day moving average of $59.79. StepStone Group LP has a 1-year low of $32.58 and a 1-year high of $70.38.

StepStone Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently -56.80%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Anthony Keathley sold 538 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.00, for a total value of $33,894.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,386 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $87,318. The trade was a 27.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Scott W. Hart sold 22,091 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.24, for a total transaction of $1,397,034.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,986,165.16. This represents a 12.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 36,629 shares of company stock worth $2,302,229. 18.44% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.