GCMG vs STEP: How GCM Grosvenor Inc. and StepStone Group Compare (2026)

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Reading it: GCMG is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. GCMG and STEP share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined GCMG and STEP exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

GCM Grosvenor is an open-architecture alternative asset manager, meaning it does not primarily run its own buyout deals. It designs and manages portfolios of other people's private funds, co-investments and hedge fund strategies on behalf of large institutions, and increasingly invests directly alongside sponsors. The firm was founded in 1971, employs roughly 530 people out of Chicago with offices in New York, London, Frankfurt, Singapore and Hong Kong, and listed on Nasdaq in November 2020 through a merger with the CF Finance Acquisition Corp II blank-check company. As of the first quarter of 2026 it managed about $91.5 billion, up roughly 12% year over year, of which about $73.5 billion was fee-paying. Private markets (private equity, infrastructure, real estate and credit) account for about $64.4 billion, and absolute return strategies, the hedge fund side, carry about $26 billion of fee-paying assets. Clients skew institutional: public pensions are about 36% of the base, insurance companies about 17% and corporations about 12%, with roughly 59% of assets sourced from the Americas, 26% from Asia-Pacific and 15% from EMEA.

Full GCMG guide

StepStone Group is a private markets investment firm headquartered in New York that acts as an outsourced allocator rather than a traditional buyout shop. Clients hand it capital through separately managed accounts, commingled funds and advisory mandates, and StepStone deploys that money into primary fund commitments, secondaries and co-investments across four asset classes: private equity, infrastructure, private debt and real estate. It was responsible for approximately $885 billion of total capital as of March 31, 2026, of which roughly $233.3 billion was discretionary assets under management and about $144.0 billion was fee-earning AUM. A large research and data operation, commercialized as the SPI by StepStone platform, sits underneath all of it and covers tens of thousands of funds, managers and portfolio companies.

Full STEP guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• GCMG drivers: The 2028 fee-related earnings doubling target; The shift from fund-of-funds to direct and customized mandates.
• STEP drivers: Fee-earning AUM plus a large undeployed backlog; The private wealth channel.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: The public float is small: only about 58.7 million shares trade freely against roughly 202 million fully exchanged units, a consequence of the Up-C structure left over from the 2020 blank-check listing, so day-to-day liquidity is thin and voting control rests with co-founder and executive chairman Michael Sacks rather than public holders. For STEP, carried interest is genuinely volatile: total performance fees swung to about $1.07 billion in fiscal 2026 from $407.8 million a year earlier, and fiscal Q4 performance fee earnings fell 57% year over year, so quarter-to-quarter GAAP results tell you little about run-rate economics.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick GCMG if you believe its drivers more; STEP if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the GCMG and STEP guides.

GCMG. The gap between the ~27x trailing and ~15x forward multiple is the whole debate in one number: trailing GAAP earnings are depressed by the Up-C structure's non-controlling interest split and by amortization, while forward estimates assume the 2028 fee-related earnings plan is on track. Enterprise value is about $2.97 billion against roughly $422 million of debt, putting EV/EBITDA near 21x, richer than a pure fee-annuity manager would normally screen but below the mega-cap alternatives. Price-to-book of roughly 31x is close to meaningless here because the Up-C structure keeps almost no equity on the Class A balance sheet, so cash-flow and fee-related earnings measures carry the analytical weight. Second quarter 2026 results were scheduled for August 10, 2026, with consensus near $0.18 of adjusted EPS on about $131 million of revenue.

STEP. Fiscal 2026 revenue of about $1.99 billion was up roughly 70% year over year, but that figure is inflated by unrealized carried interest allocations of about $539.7 million, so management and advisory fees of about $926.5 million are the cleaner comparison. Trailing GAAP EPS is negative because of the non-cash buy-in charge, which is why the stock is usually valued on adjusted net income of about $2.16 per share for fiscal 2026 or on forward estimates near 20x. Shares traded around $50 in early August 2026, down roughly 30% over twelve months, with a base quarterly dividend of $0.28 supplemented by a $0.55 variable payment tied to realized carry.

Headline figures (approximate, August 2026): GCMG shows revenue (ttm) ~$553 million, up ~4% year over year, aum / fee-paying aum ~$91.5 billion and ~$73.5 billion at Q1 2026, up ~12% and ~11%, fee-related earnings (ltm) ~$185 million, up ~6%, at a ~44% adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted net income (ltm) ~$167 million, up ~12%; Q1 2026 adjusted EPS ~$0.18; STEP shows revenue (fy2026) ~$1.99B, assets under management ~$233.3B, fee-earning aum ~$144.0B, fee-related earnings (fy2026) ~$354.4M.

GCMG and STEP are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined GCMG and STEP exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.