StepStone Group Inc. (STEP) Stock Price & How to Invest

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.

The investment picture splits cleanly into two stories. The operating story is strong: fiscal 2026 (ended March 31, 2026) management and advisory fees rose about 21% to roughly $926.5 million, fee-related earnings grew about 14% to roughly $354.4 million at a 40% fourth-quarter margin, gross capital formation reached about $38 billion for the year including a record ~$14 billion quarter, and the private wealth platform approached $18 billion. The reported story looks worse: StepStone posted a fiscal 2026 GAAP net loss attributable to the company of roughly $535.8 million, driven overwhelmingly by non-cash equity-based compensation tied to the buy-in of interests in its asset-class subsidiaries plus swings in unrealized carried interest and the related compensation accruals. Shares fell roughly 30% over the twelve months into mid-2026 as investors de-risked private-market names and worried about AI pressure on software-heavy private portfolios, leaving the stock trading around 20x forward earnings with a dividend yield near 3.4%.

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. The reported fiscal 2026 net loss of roughly $535.8 million, driven by about $1.74 billion of largely non-cash equity-based compensation from the subsidiary buy-in and by unrealized carry accruals, makes the income statement hard to read and is part of why the stock derated. A slower exit environment for private assets delays realizations, which suppresses both carried interest and the distributions that fund new client commitments. Roughly 11% of AUM sits in software, and 2026 anxiety about AI disrupting software business models hit private-capital stocks broadly, showing how sentiment on the underlying asset classes transmits straight to the manager's multiple. The evergreen wealth funds also carry redemption and distribution risk: they offer periodic liquidity on illiquid assets, and a stretch of weak returns or advisor sentiment could turn net inflows into net outflows.

8 analysts publish price targets on STEP, averaging $66.50 against a $49.82 price as of August 2026, or +33.5%. The published targets run from $50.00 to $92.00, a moderate spread, and the ratings split 7 buy, 1 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 5 raises and 7 cuts among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full STEP forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on StepStone Group Inc.. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. Fee-earning AUM plus a large undeployed backlog. Fee-earning AUM reached about $144.0 billion at the end of fiscal 2026, up roughly 19% year over year, and undeployed fee-earning capital stood at about $40.1 billion, up roughly 63%. The most optimistic published target, $92.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. 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. The most pessimistic target, $50.00, is roughly what STEP is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on STEP, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see StepStone Group Inc.'s investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (FY2026): ~$1.99B
• Assets under management: ~$233.3B
• Fee-earning AUM: ~$144.0B
• Fee-related earnings (FY2026): ~$354.4M
• Market cap: ~$6.1B
• Dividend yield: ~3.4%

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.

Other names that sit close to STEP: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get STEP exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so STEP sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where STEP fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

STEP is a fee-driven private markets manager with record fundraising and a fast-growing wealth channel, trading well below its highs because headline GAAP losses, lumpy carried interest and a cooler exit environment have overshadowed the underlying fee growth.

Whether STEP is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is STEP a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the STEP stock forecast.

For income investors, whether STEP pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does STEP pay a dividend? And to weigh STEP against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: STEP vs GCMG and STEP vs BX.