StepStone Group Inc. (STEP) shares soared 6% in the last trading session to close at $63.24. The move was backed by solid volume with far more shares changing hands than in a normal session. This compares to the stock's 11.3% gain over the past four weeks.
StepStone Group's share witnessed a strong price increase as the company announced that it is utilizing Goji’s technology to enhance access to several of its European private market evergreen funds. Goji is a global provider of technology-enabled solutions to the private markets. Its end-to-end investment platform will simplify the complexities of the investor journey for several of StepStone’s funds. This boosted investors’ optimism, which led to a price surge.
This company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.41 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -14.6%. Revenues are expected to be $228.81 million, up 3.5% from the year-ago quarter.
While earnings and revenue growth expectations are important in evaluating the potential strength in a stock, empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.
For StepStone Group, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. And a stock's price usually doesn't keep moving higher in the absence of any trend in earnings estimate revisions. So, make sure to keep an eye on STEP going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.
The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>
StepStone Group belongs to the Zacks Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry. Another stock from the same industry, Houlihan Lokey (HLI), closed the last trading session 1.5% higher at $197.43. Over the past month, HLI has returned 12.4%.
Houlihan Lokey's consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has remained unchanged over the past month at $1.69. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of +38.5%. Houlihan Lokey currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
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StepStone Group Inc. (STEP): Free Stock Analysis Report Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (HLI): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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