StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP – Get Rating) and Legal & General Group (OTCMKTS:LGGNY – Get Rating) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, profitability and risk.
Profitability
This table compares StepStone Group and Legal & General Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| StepStone Group | N/A | 9.34% | 4.20% |
| Legal & General Group | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for StepStone Group and Legal & General Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| StepStone Group | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2.20 |
| Legal & General Group | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2.38 |
Insider and Institutional Ownership
93.8% of StepStone Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of Legal & General Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 20.0% of StepStone Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Volatility and Risk
StepStone Group has a beta of 1.37, indicating that its share price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Legal & General Group has a beta of 1.49, indicating that its share price is 49% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares StepStone Group and Legal & General Group’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| StepStone Group | $1.37 billion | 1.86 | $193.88 million | ($0.08) | -290.13 |
| Legal & General Group | $62.50 billion | 0.30 | $2.81 billion | N/A | N/A |
Legal & General Group has higher revenue and earnings than StepStone Group.
Dividends
StepStone Group pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Legal & General Group pays an annual dividend of $0.54 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. StepStone Group pays out -1,000.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. StepStone Group has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.
Summary
StepStone Group beats Legal & General Group on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About StepStone Group
StepStone Group Inc. is an investment firm specializing in direct, fund of funds, secondary direct, and secondary indirect investments. For direct investment, it seeks to invest in venture debt, incubation, mezzanine, distressed/vulture, seed/startup, early venture, mid venture, late venture, emerging growth, later stage, turnaround, growth capital, industry consolidation, recapitalization, and buyout investments in mature and middle market companies. It prefers to invest in natural resources, technology, healthcare, services, materials, manufacturing, consumer durables, apparel, hotels, restaurants and leisure, media, retailing, consumer staples, financials, telecommunication services, energy, infrastructure, real estate, and real asset. The firm invests globally with a focus on United States, North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, Middle East, Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, New Zealand, China, India, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Australia region. It typically invests between $15 million and $200 million in firms with enterprise value between $150 million and $25000 million. The firm invests between 5% and 40% in emerging markets. For fund of fund investment, it seeks to invest in private equity funds, venture capital funds, Special situation funds, Real estate funds, Infrastructure funds, mezzanine funds, and turnaround/distressed funds. It considers investments in both domestic and international funds. It also seeks to make co-investments and follow-on investments and considers partial interests in funds. StepStone Group Inc. was founded in 2007 and is based in New York, New York with additional offices across North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.
About Legal & General Group
Legal & General Group Plc engages in the provision of risk, savings and investment management products and services. It operates through the following segments: Legal & General Retirement (LGR); Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM); Legal & General Capital (LGC); and Legal & General Insurance (LGI). The LGR segment works with companies, pension fund trustees and its advisers to provide risk transfer solutions. The LGIM segment manages investments for defined benefit plans. The LGC segment develops direct investments and increase the risk-adjusted returns on shareholder assets. The LGI represents UK retail protection, group protection and network business. The company was founded on September 19, 1836 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
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