StepStone Group Inc. (STEP) SEC Filings & Earnings Calls

Fundraising Slowdown

“Our results and the overall industry results have been, and may continue to be, adversely affected by slower, uneven or more challenging fundraising activity and capital deployment, which have resulted in, and may continue to result in, delayed or decreased management fees.” · word for word

Performance Fee Volatility

“Further, fund managers have been unable or less able to exit existing investments profitably. Such conditions have resulted in, and may continue to result in, delayed or decreased performance fee revenues.” · word for word

Equity-Based Compensation Dilution

“Equity-based compensation increased $128.6 million, or 68%, to $317.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2026 as compared to the three months ended June 30, 2025.” · word for word

Market and fundraising environment risks; integration of acquired businesses.

“Forward-looking statements mention risks including global market conditions, private markets fundraising environment, and integration of acquired businesses.”

Dilution risk from unregistered share issuance

“Issuance of 972,685 shares of Class A Common Stock and 2,438,273 Class D Units without registration under the Securities Act.”

Regulatory Compliance Risk

“These and other evolving privacy, cybersecurity and AI regimes may increase our compliance burden and affect our distribution and operations” · word for word

Market Volatility Risk

“Difficult or volatile market and political conditions can adversely affect our business by reducing the market value of the assets we manage, causing our clients to reduce their investments in private markets” · word for word

Competition Risk

“The investment management and investment advisory business is intensely competitive” · word for word

Tariff Impact on Portfolio Companies

“The United States has imposed tariffs on various products imported into the United States. These tariffs have resulted in, and may continue to trigger, retaliatory actions by affected countries” · word for word

Net income volatility; prior quarters showed losses.

“Net income (loss) for Q2 FY2026: ($575,490k), Q3: ($162,435k).”

Net loss persists despite revenue growth, driven by performance fee volatility and potential non-cash charges.

“Net loss of $162.4M in Q3 FY2026, though improved from $287.2M loss prior year.”

Equity-Based Compensation Volatility from SPW

“Equity-based compensation increased $999.1 million, or 184%, to $1,542.0 million for the nine months ended December 31, 2025 as compared to the nine months ended December 31, 2024. The increase was primarily attributable to a $998.4 million increase in expenses for liability classified awards related to the profits interest issued in SPW.” · word for word

Fundraising and Deployment Slowdown

“Our results and the overall industry results have been, and may continue to be, adversely affected by slowdowns in fundraising activity and the pace of capital deployment, which have resulted in, and may continue to result in, delayed or decreased management fees.” · word for word

Macroeconomic and Trade Policy Uncertainty

“In the second half of 2025, financial markets continued to experience significant volatility in response to the uncertainty of the economic impact from U.S. trade policy developments including the announcement and implementation of increases on tariffs charged by the U.S. on certain imports and the weakening of the U.S. dollar against several major foreign c” · word for word

Performance Fee Reversal Risk

“Carried interest is subject to reversal to the extent that the amount received to date exceeds the amount due to us based on cumulative results.” · word for word

Fundraising and Deployment Slowdown

“Our results and the overall industry results have been and may continue to be adversely affected by slowdowns in fundraising activity and the pace of capital deployment, which have resulted in, and may continue to result in, delayed or decreased management fees.” · word for word

Performance Fee Volatility from Exit Environment

“Further, fund managers have been unable or less able to exit existing investments profitably. Such conditions have resulted in, and may continue to result in, delayed or decreased performance fee revenues.” · word for word

Equity-Based Compensation Volatility

“We expect that there may be additional significant increases in equity-based compensation in future periods due to further increases in the fair value of liability classified awards, which is driven by the performance of SPW.” · word for word

U.S. Government Shutdown Impact

“A prolonged U.S. federal government shutdown could adversely affect our operations, investments, regulatory approvals, and financial performance and could cause volatility in the capital markets which may interrupt our access to capital.” · word for word

Macroeconomic and Trade Policy Uncertainty

“In early 2025, financial markets experienced significant volatility in response to the uncertainty of the economic impact from U.S. trade policy developments including the announcement and implementation of increases on tariffs charged by the U.S. on certain imports and the weakening of the U.S. dollar against several major foreign currencies.” · word for word

Net loss of $575M driven by non-cash items may raise concerns about earnings quality.

“Net income (loss)... $(575,490) thousand”