Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.
Market Information for Common Stock
Our Class A common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “STEP.” There is no established public trading market for our Class B common stock.
Holders of Record
As of May 25, 2022, there was one stockholder of record of our Class A common stock and there were 63 stockholders of record of our Class B common stock. The actual number of stockholders is greater than this number of record holders and includes stockholders who are beneficial owners but whose shares are held in street name by brokers and other nominees.
Dividend Policy
The Board of Directors of the Company declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.15 per share of Class A common stock, which was paid on March 15, 2022 to holders of record at the close of business on February 28, 2022. In addition, on May 26, 2022, we announced a dividend of $0.20 per share of Class A common stock, which is payable on June 30, 2022 to holders of record at the close of business on June 15, 2022. This dividend relates to earnings in respect of our fourth quarter of fiscal year 2022.
The following table presents information regarding quarterly dividends on Class A common shares for the periods indicated:
Quarterly Fiscal Period 1
Dividend Payment Date Dividend Per Share of Class A Common Stock
First quarter N/A
Second quarter N/A
Third quarter N/A
Fourth quarter March 12, 2021 $ 0.07
Total dividends paid in FY2021 $ 0.07
First quarter July 15, 2021 $ 0.07
Second quarter September 15, 2021 0.07
Third quarter December 15, 2021 0.15
Fourth quarter March 15, 2022 0.15
Total dividends paid in FY2022 $ 0.44
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(1) Prior to the Company’s IPO on September 16, 2020, it was a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Partnership, had a single class of common stock and did not pay dividends. As such, there is no quarterly dividend information reported for the quarter ended September 30, 2020 or any periods prior. Dividends paid, as reported in this table, relate to the preceding quarterly period in which they were earned.
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Subject to funds being legally available, we intend to cause the Partnership to make distributions to each of its partners, including SSG, in an amount intended to enable each partner to pay all applicable taxes on taxable income allocable to such partner and to allow SSG to make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreements, and non-pro rata payments to SSG to reimburse it for corporate and other overhead expenses. If the amount of tax distributions to be made exceeds the amount of funds available for distribution, SSG shall receive the full amount of its tax distribution before the other partners receive any distribution and the balance, if any, of funds available for distribution shall be distributed to the other partners pro rata in accordance with their assumed tax liabilities. The declaration and payment of any other dividends by SSG will generally be at the sole discretion of its board of directors, which may change our dividend policy at any time. Holders of our Class B common stock will not be entitled to dividends distributed by SSG, but will share in the distributions made by the Partnership on a pro rata basis. In connection with deciding whether to pay any dividend to our Class A stockholders, the board of directors will take into account:
• general economic and business conditions;
• our financial condition and results of operations;
• our available cash and current and anticipated cash needs;
• our capital requirements;
• contractual, legal, tax and regulatory requirements, restrictions and implications on the payment of dividends by us to our stockholders or by our subsidiaries (including the Partnership) to us; and
• such other factors as our board of directors may deem relevant.
To the extent that the tax distributions SSG receives exceed the amounts SSG actually is required to pay taxes and other expenses and make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreements (because of the lower tax rate applicable to SSG than the assumed tax rate on which such distributions are based or because a disproportionate share of the taxable income of the Partnership may be required to be allocated to partners in the Partnership other than SSG), our board of directors, in its sole discretion, will make any determination from time to time with respect to the use of any such excess cash so accumulated, including potentially causing SSG to contribute such excess cash (net of any operating expenses) to the Partnership. Concurrently with any potential contribution of such excess cash, in order to maintain the intended economic relationship between the shares of Class A common stock and the Partnership units after accounting for such contribution, the Partnership and SSG, as applicable, may undertake ameliorative actions, which may include reverse splits, reclassifications, combinations, subdivisions or adjustments of outstanding Partnership units and corresponding shares of Class A common stock, as well as corresponding adjustments to the shares of Class B common stock. To the extent that SSG contributes such excess cash to the Partnership (and undertakes such ameliorative actions), a holder of Class A common stock would not receive distributions in cash and would instead benefit through an increase in the indirect ownership interest in the Partnership represented by such holder’s Class A common stock. To the extent that SSG does not distribute such excess cash as dividends on the Class A common stock or otherwise undertake such ameliorative actions and instead, for example, holds such cash balances, the limited partners of the Partnership (not including SSG) may benefit from any value attributable to such cash balances as a result of their ownership of Class A common stock following an exchange of their Class B units for shares of the Class A common stock, notwithstanding that such limited partners may previously have participated as holders of Class B units in distributions by the Partnership that resulted in such excess cash balances at SSG.
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Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities
Except as previously disclosed in Current Reports on Form 8-K, no unregistered sales of the Company’s equity securities were made during the year ended March 31, 2022.
Use of Proceeds
None.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
None.
Stock Performance Graph
The following performance graph and related information shall not be deemed “soliciting material” or to be “filed” with the SEC, nor shall such information be incorporated by reference into any future filing under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act, whether made before or after the date hereof and irrespective of any general incorporation language in any such filing, or otherwise subject to the liabilities under the Securities Act or Exchange Act, except to the extent that we specifically incorporate it by reference into such filing.
The following graph depicts the total cumulative stockholder return on our common stock from September 16, 2020, the first day of trading of our Class A common stock on Nasdaq, through March 31, 2022, relative to the performance of the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones US Asset Managers Index. The graph assumes an initial investment of $100.00 at the close of trading on September 16, 2020 and that all dividends paid by companies included in these indices have been reinvested. The performance shown in the graph below is not intended to forecast or be indicative of future stock price performance.
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September 16, 2020 March 31, 2021 March 31, 2022
StepStone Group Inc. $ 100.00 $ 141.36 $ 134.05
S&P 500 Index $ 100.00 $ 118.33 $ 136.80
Dow Jones US Asset Managers Index $ 100.00 $ 140.46 $ 153.12
Item 6. [Reserved]
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Text extracted from the filing as submitted to EDGAR. Formatting, tables and exhibits are simplified for reading; the original document is authoritative for anything you rely on.