HLNE vs STEP: Which Is the Better Buy in 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.

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. HLNE 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 HLNE 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.

Hamilton Lane Incorporated is a private-markets investment and advisory firm founded in 1991 and listed on Nasdaq since 2017, with roughly 800 professionals across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. It sits between institutional investors and private-markets fund managers rather than running buyouts itself. The business has three revenue shapes. Customized separate accounts are discretionary mandates run for pensions, insurers and sovereign funds. Specialized funds are commingled vehicles covering secondaries, co-investment and direct equity, private credit, infrastructure and impact, and this is where fee rates are highest. Advisory and technology work (reporting, monitoring, portfolio construction and the Cobalt analytics platform) covers a far larger asset base at much thinner economics. As of June 30, 2026 the firm reported roughly $1.1 trillion in assets under management and supervision, split between about $146.3 billion of discretionary assets and about $914.1 billion of non-discretionary advisory assets.

Full HLNE 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.

• HLNE drivers: Evergreen and private-wealth distribution; Specialized-fund fee-earning AUM.
• 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 accounting dispute is the first-order risk: the April 2026 Hunterbrook report alleged that day-one markups on secondary purchases and incentive accruals on unrealized gains flatter fee-related earnings, plaintiff firms including Johnson Fistel opened investigations, and a change in presentation or a regulatory inquiry would hit sentiment even without changing cash flows. 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.

Pick HLNE 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 HLNE and STEP guides.

HLNE. Hamilton Lane runs on an April-to-March fiscal year, so the quarter ended June 30, 2026 is its fiscal 2027 first quarter. Fee-related earnings of about $124 million on roughly $275 million of quarterly revenue is the number bulls anchor on and the number the short case attacks, because it includes incentive revenue linked to unrealized marks and excludes stock-based compensation. Comparing the multiple to Blackstone or Ares also requires adjusting for the Up-C structure, where the listed Class A shares represent only a portion of the economics of the underlying operating partnership.

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): HLNE shows revenue (ttm) ~$858 million (June 2026 quarter ~$275 million), market capitalization ~$6.99 billion at a share price of ~$104, price to trailing revenue ~8x, fee-earning aum ~$83.7 billion, up ~12% year over year; STEP shows revenue (fy2026) ~$1.99B, assets under management ~$233.3B, fee-earning aum ~$144.0B, fee-related earnings (fy2026) ~$354.4M.

HLNE 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 HLNE and STEP exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.