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

StepStone Group is a private markets investment firm headquartered in New York that works 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 kept falling after mid-2026 as investors de-risked private-market names, worried about AI pressure on software-heavy private portfolios and, in October, priced in the chance of further Federal Reserve rate increases after a hot September inflation print. As of October 16, 2026 STEP closed near ~$41.87, down ~37% year to date and ~32% over twelve months, about 46% below its 52-week high of ~$77.79, for a market value near ~$5.4 billion. That leaves the stock around ~17x fiscal 2027 consensus earnings of ~$2.46 per share and ~12x the fiscal 2028 consensus of ~$3.40, with a dividend yield near ~4%.

The June 2026 quarter, the first of fiscal 2027, produced revenue of ~$379 million, up ~4% year over year, and adjusted earnings of ~$0.48 per share, a penny or two short of the ~$0.50 consensus after four straight quarters of beats. Since then StepStone has kept adding products: in October it launched StepStone Total Portfolio Allocator, a tool that brings its private markets data into whole-portfolio construction, partnered with Malaysia's ASB Capital on a Sharia-compliant private financing fund, and has been pushing into real estate secondaries, a market it sizes at about $20 billion. Wells Fargo started coverage at overweight with a $55 target on October 2, and fiscal second-quarter results are due November 5, 2026.

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 say 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. Interest rates are a newer pressure point: when September 2026 inflation came in above forecasts and traders raised the odds of a Fed hike, STEP fell with other asset managers on worries that higher rates slow dealmaking and exits. The dividend also needs watching, since trailing payouts of ~$1.72 per share exceed adjusted earnings expectations for fiscal 2027 of ~$2.46 by a thin margin once the variable component is included, and the supplemental piece depends on realized carry.

10 analysts publish price targets on STEP, averaging $64.70 against a $45.05 price as of November 2026, or +43.6%. The published targets run from $48.00 to $87.00, a moderate spread, and the ratings split 9 buy, 1 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 4 raises and 6 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, $87.00, 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 say little about run-rate economics. The most pessimistic target, $48.00, 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.

No. StepStone Group Inc. (STEP) has not split its stock in the last 10 years. That is a statement about the window we check rather than about the company’s entire history, so an older split is possible. It also matters less than it once did: fractional shares mean a high price per share no longer keeps smaller investors out, which removed most of the practical reason to split.

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 (TTM): ~$2.01B, up ~4% year over year in the June 2026 quarter
• Net income (TTM): ~-$613M GAAP net loss (trailing EPS ~-$7.68), driven by non-cash buy-in compensation
• Assets under management: ~$233.3B as of March 31, 2026
• Fee-earning AUM: ~$144.0B as of March 31, 2026
• Fee-related earnings (FY2026): ~$354.4M
• Forward P/E: ~17x fiscal 2027 consensus EPS of ~$2.46; ~12x fiscal 2028 consensus of ~$3.40
• Market cap: ~$5.4B at a share price near ~$42
• Dividend yield: ~4.0% on ~$1.72 of trailing dividends

Trailing GAAP EPS is negative because of the non-cash buy-in charge and carry accounting, so the stock is valued on adjusted earnings, and at ~$42 it trades near ~17x this fiscal year's consensus versus roughly 20x in August 2026. Revenue figures are inflated or depressed by unrealized carried interest from one quarter to the next, which is why management and advisory fees (~$926.5 million in fiscal 2026) and fee-related earnings are the cleaner measures. Fiscal second-quarter results arrive November 5, 2026, with consensus near ~$0.56 of adjusted EPS on ~$325 million of revenue.

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 near ~$42 (down ~37% year to date) because headline GAAP losses, lumpy carried interest, a cooler exit environment and rising rate worries have overshadowed the underlying fee growth. That leaves the shares near ~12x the fiscal 2028 consensus with a yield around ~4%.

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 HLNE and STEP vs GCMG.