STRL

Looking for a stock that has been consistently beating earnings estimates and might be well positioned to keep the streak alive in its next quarterly report? Sterling Infrastructure (STRL), which belongs to the Zacks Engineering - R and D Services industry, could be a great candidate to consider. This civil construction company has an established record of topping earnings estimates, especially when looking at the previous two reports. The company boasts an average surprise for the past two quarters of 36.28%. For the last reported quarter, Sterling Infrastructure came out with earnings of $3.59 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.29 per share, representing a surprise of 56.77%. For the previous quarter, the company was expected to post earnings of $2.66 per share and it actually produced earnings of $3.08 per share, delivering a surprise of 15.79%. Thanks in part to this history, there has been a favorable change in earnings estimates for Sterling Infrastructure lately. In fact, the Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) for the stock is positive, which is a great indicator of an earnings beat, particularly when combined with its solid Zacks Rank. Our research shows that stocks with the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time. In other words, if you have 10 stocks with this combination, the number of stocks that beat the consensus estimate could be as high as seven. The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a version of the Zacks Consensus whose definition is related to change. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier. Sterling Infrastructure has an Earnings ESP of +3.62% at the moment, suggesting that analysts have grown bullish on its near-term earnings potential. When you combine this positive Earnings ESP with the stock's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), it shows that another beat is possibly around the corner. When the Earnings ESP comes up negative, investors should note that this will reduce the predictive power of the metric. But, a negative value is not i...

Find winning stocks in any market cycle. Join 7 million investors using Simply Wall St's investing ideas for FREE. Sterling Infrastructure (STRL) has been drawing attention after strong recent earnings, rapid revenue growth, and an expanding backlog, with analyst upgrades and higher earnings estimates reinforcing market optimism around its evolving E-Infrastructure focused business model. See our latest analysis for Sterling Infrastructure. Sterling Infrastructure’s momentum has been strong, with a 30 day share price return of 17.46% and a 90 day share price return of 114.61%. The 1 year total shareholder return is very large, suggesting investors have rapidly repriced the stock as its E-Infrastructure story and earnings trajectory have gained attention. If the recent surge in Sterling Infrastructure has you thinking about where else growth and capital investment could flow, it is worth scanning 49 AI infrastructure stocks With Sterling Infrastructure now trading at $861.88, only about 9% below the average analyst price target of roughly $928 to $941, the key question for you is whether there is still a buying opportunity here or if the market is already pricing in future growth. Compared with Sterling Infrastructure’s last close of $861.88, the most followed narrative points to a fair value of $941.17, framing the recent rally against a higher long term earnings story. Read the complete narrative. Want to see what is really baked into that $941.17 figure? The narrative leans on fast compounding earnings, expanding margins, and a richer multiple than you might expect. The exact mix of growth and profitability assumptions may surprise you. Result: Fair Value of $941.17 (UNDERVALUED) Have a read of the narrative in full and understand what's behind the forecasts. However, Sterling Infrastructure’s narrative could be tested if mega data center and semiconductor projects slow, or if new acquisitions underperform and weigh on margins. Find out about the key risks to this Sterling Infrastructure narrative. While the most followed narrative suggests Sterling Infrastructure is about 8.4% undervalued at $861.88 versus a $941.17 fair value, the Simply Wall St DCF model paints a very different picture. On that framework, the stock trades well above an estimated future cash flow value of $469.91, pointing to an overvalued reading instead. That gap between earnings based...

A month has gone by since the last earnings report for Sterling Infrastructure (STRL). Shares have added about 8.6% in that time frame, outperforming the S&P 500. Will the recent positive trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is Sterling Infrastructure due for a pullback? Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late, let's take a quick look at the latest earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important catalysts. Sterling delivered a strong first quarter of 2026, with adjusted earnings and revenues topping the Zacks Consensus Estimate and rising sharply year over year. Results were powered by outsized growth in E-Infrastructure Solutions, supported by contributions from the CEC acquisition and solid execution on large, time-sensitive mission-critical work. Additionally, the Transportation Solutions segment benefited from strong performance in the Rocky Mountain market and a strategic shift toward higher-margin projects.Despite record overall performance, the Building Solutions segment remained a headwind. Revenues increased modestly, but adjusted operating income declined sharply year over year due to tough prior-year comparisons and ongoing affordability pressures that continue to weigh on prospective homebuyers. Adjusted earnings were $3.59 per share, beating the consensus mark of $2.29 by 56.8%. In the year-ago quarter, the company reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.63.Revenues of $825.7 million surpassed the consensus estimate of $585 million by 41.1% and increased 92% from $430.9 million in the year-ago quarter. The recently acquired CEC Facilities Group contributed $156.1 million to revenues during the quarter.Signed backlog ended the quarter at $3.80 billion, while first-quarter book-to-burn ratios were 2.1x for backlog and 3.5x for combined backlog. Beyond signed work, the company pointed to a growing pipeline of high-probability future phases that now exceeds $1.3 billion. Management also highlighted wins tied to large, multi-year projects, including an initial phase award for a major semiconductor fabrication campus. Operating leverage stood out in the quarter as profit growth outpaced the top line. Gross profit rose to $194.3 million from $94.8 million a year ago, and gross profit margin improved to 23.5% from 22%, an expansion of roughly 150 basis points.Operating income reach...

It is not surprising that before an earnings season, every investor looks for stocks that can beat market expectations. This is because investors always try to position themselves ahead of time and look to tap stocks that are high-quality in nature. We ran a screener that yielded stocks Albemarle ALB, Construction Partners ROAD, Sterling Infrastructure Inc. STRL, Silicon Motion Technology SIMO and Marathon Petroleum MPC as the likely winners on the earnings beat potential. Historically, stocks of companies with solid quarterly earnings (on a nominal basis) tank if they miss or merely meet market expectations. After all, a 20% earnings rise (though apparently looks good) doesn’t tell you if earnings growth has been exhibiting a decelerating trend. Also, seasonal fluctuations come into play sometimes. If a company’s Q1 is seasonally weak and Q4 strong, then it is likely to report a sequential earnings decline. In such cases, growth rates are misleading when judging the true health of a company. On the other hand, after much brainstorming and analysis of companies’ financials and initiatives, Wall Street analysts project the earnings of companies. They, in fact, club their insights and a company’s guidance when deriving an earnings estimate. Thus, outperforming that estimate is almost equivalent to beating the company’s own expectation as well as the market perception. And if the margin of earnings surprise is big, it typically drives the stock higher right after the release. Thus, more than anything else, an earnings surprise can push a stock higher. Now, finding stocks that have the potential to beat on the bottom line may be investors’ dream, but not an easy job. One way to do this is to look at the earnings surprise history of the company. An impressive track in this regard generally acts as a catalyst in sending a stock higher. It indicates the company’s ability to surpass estimates. And investors generally believe that the company will apply the same secret sauce to execute yet another earnings beat in its next release. In order to shortlist stocks that are likely to come up with an earnings surprise, we chose the following as our primary screening parameters. Last EPS Surprise greater than or equal to 10%: Stocks delivering positive surprise in the last quarter tend to surprise again. Average EPS Surprise in the last four quarters greater than 20%: We li...

Sterling delivered a standout first quarter, significantly exceeding Wall Street’s expectations and prompting a strong positive market reaction. Management attributed the performance to surging demand for large-scale E-Infrastructure projects, especially in the data center and semiconductor sectors. CEO Joseph Cutillo explained that robust execution on complex, vertically integrated projects and earlier project starts, aided by favorable weather, were crucial contributors. The company’s backlog surged, driven by new awards in mission-critical buildouts, which has strengthened management’s confidence in Sterling’s multi-year growth trajectory. Is now the time to buy STRL? Find out in our full research report (it’s free). Revenue: $825.7 million vs analyst estimates of $592 million (91.6% year-on-year growth, 39.5% beat) Adjusted EPS: $3.59 vs analyst estimates of $2.19 (63.9% beat) Adjusted EBITDA: $166.6 million vs analyst estimates of $110.2 million (20.2% margin, 51.2% beat) The company lifted its revenue guidance for the full year to $3.75 billion at the midpoint from $3.13 billion, a 20% increase Management raised its full-year Adjusted EPS guidance to $18.73 at the midpoint, a 36.2% increase EBITDA guidance for the full year is $858 million at the midpoint, above analyst estimates of $637.4 million Operating Margin: 17.2%, up from 13.4% in the same quarter last year Market Capitalization: $25.92 billion While we enjoy listening to the management's commentary, our favorite part of earnings calls are the analyst questions. Those are unscripted and can often highlight topics that management teams would rather avoid or topics where the answer is complicated. Here is what has caught our attention. Sangeeta (KeyBanc): Asked CEO Joseph Cutillo what drove the exceptional first quarter performance, particularly given the seasonally slow period. Cutillo pointed to favorable weather, early project starts, and rapidly scaling E-Infrastructure projects as key factors. Noah (William Blair): Inquired about Sterling’s Texas presence and integration of CEC, especially regarding cross-selling and margin expansion. Cutillo detailed the multi-pronged approach to Texas, robust joint project activity, and noted CEC's margin improvement is ahead of expectations. Brian (Stifel): Sought clarification on Texas’ revenue contribution and differences in margin profiles by region. C...

Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. (NASDAQ:STRL) announced a healthy earnings result recently, and the market rewarded it with a strong uplift in the stock price. This reaction by the market reaction is understandable when looking at headline profits and we have found some further encouraging factors. We've found 21 US stocks that are forecast to pay a dividend yield of over 6% next year. See the full list for free. As finance nerds would already know, the accrual ratio from cashflow is a key measure for assessing how well a company's free cash flow (FCF) matches its profit. The accrual ratio subtracts the FCF from the profit for a given period, and divides the result by the average operating assets of the company over that time. You could think of the accrual ratio from cashflow as the 'non-FCF profit ratio'. That means a negative accrual ratio is a good thing, because it shows that the company is bringing in more free cash flow than its profit would suggest. While it's not a problem to have a positive accrual ratio, indicating a certain level of non-cash profits, a high accrual ratio is arguably a bad thing, because it indicates paper profits are not matched by cash flow. Notably, there is some academic evidence that suggests that a high accrual ratio is a bad sign for near-term profits, generally speaking. Sterling Infrastructure has an accrual ratio of -0.13 for the year to March 2026. That indicates that its free cash flow was a fair bit more than its statutory profit. In fact, it had free cash flow of US$442m in the last year, which was a lot more than its statutory profit of US$346.6m. Sterling Infrastructure's free cash flow actually declined over the last year, which is disappointing, like non-biodegradable balloons. That might leave you wondering what analysts are forecasting in terms of future profitability. Luckily, you can click here to see an interactive graph depicting future profitability, based on their estimates. As we discussed above, Sterling Infrastructure has perfectly satisfactory free cash flow relative to profit. Based on this observation, we consider it likely that Sterling Infrastructure's statutory profit actually understates its earnings potential! And on top of that, its earnings per share have grown at an extremely impressive rate over the last three years. The goal of this article has been to assess how well we can rely on the stat...

The stock market hit fresh highs as crude oil prices tumbled below $100 on Iran hopes. Earnings were mostly strong, though there were big losers too

This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sterling Infrastructure (NASDAQ:STRL) shares surged to an all-time high Tuesday after the company delivered an earnings blowout that gave investors another way to think about the AI infrastructure trade. The stock climbed 52% to close at a record $806, marking Sterling's strongest one-day gain since 1998. The move came after the Houston-based civil engineering company raised its full-year profit and revenue guidance by far more than Wall Street had expected. That guidance reset possibly turned Sterling from a niche infrastructure name into a more visible proxy for the physical buildout behind artificial intelligence, where data centers, site preparation, and large-scale construction are becoming an increasingly important part of the investment story. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 6 Warning Sign with STRL. Is STRL fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Adam Thalhimer, an analyst at Thompson, Davis & Co., said he would characterize Sterling as a good way to play the data center buildout, including the new AI mega campuses. He also said the company is by far number one in data center site preparation in the US and has significant exposure to the data center market. That matters because major technology companies have been borrowing heavily and spending aggressively on construction and equipment as they race to build the infrastructure needed for AI development. For investors, Sterling's report could be another reminder that the AI trade is not just about chips, software, or cloud platforms. It is also about the companies laying the groundwork for the data center capacity that could support the next phase of AI demand. The rally did not stop with Sterling. Primoris Services (NYSE:PRIM) rose 9.4%, Everus Construction Group (NYSE:ECG) climbed 12%, Centuri Holdings (NYSE:CTRI) gained 5.8%, and Tutor Perini (NYSE:TPC) advanced 4.9%, as investors pushed other construction and engineering names higher alongside Sterling's breakout. Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading, said Sterling's results reinforced investor confidence in infrastructure plays, many of which have already been part of the AI trade. That market reaction suggests investors may be broadening their focus from the companies designing and running AI systems to the firms building the physical backbone underneath them. S...

Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. (NASDAQ:STRL) was one of the stocks on Jim Cramer’s radar as he highlighted AI winners to buy for 2026. Cramer highlighted the company’s post-earnings rally, as he said: A stock market data. Photo by AlphaTradeZone on Pexels Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. (NASDAQ:STRL) provides e-infrastructure, transportation, and building solutions, including site development for data centers, industrial facilities, and public works projects. In addition, the company offers concrete, plumbing, and surveying services for residential and commercial construction. Cramer called it one of the “hottest” stocks during the February 27 episode, as he commented: While we acknowledge the potential of STRL as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 33 Stocks That Should Double in 3 Years and 15 Stocks That Will Make You Rich in 10 Years Disclosure: None. Follow Insider Monkey on Google News.

Sterling Infrastructure STRL) has been a notable standout of this week’s earnings lineup, seeing its stock surge nearly 70% since delivering blowout Q1 results on Monday evening. Shares were up another 10% in Wednesday’s trading session to a new all-time high of $886, as investors have been reattracted to Sterling’s massive revenue growth and margin expansion. As one of the leading civil construction and infrastructure services providers in the U.S., Sterling has been moving away from low-bid highway projects and redeploying resources toward higher-margin E-Infrastructure opportunities. This selective bidding strategy is improving profitability, with Sterling capitalizing on the AI data center boom. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Delivering a record-breaking Q1 performance, Sterling wowed investors with triple-digit growth across several profitability metrics compared to the prior year quarter. Most notably, Q1 adjusted net income increased 122% to $111.3 million. This translated into adjusted EPS of $3.59, which was up 120% from $1.63 per share a year ago and crushed expectations of $2.29 by nearly 57%. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Furthermore, Q1 EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA increased 115% and 107%, respectively. These gains reflected higher revenue, improved operational efficiency, and stronger margins. Being magnified by its increased margin profile, Sterling’s Q1 sales jumped more than 90% year over year to $825.67 million and impressively topped estimates of $585.36 million by 41%. Sterling’s E-Infrastructure segment, which supports large-scale AI data center development, saw a 174% revenue surge, driven by the shift toward multi-thousand-acre data center campuses. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Highlighting strong demand from data center and semiconductor-related projects, Sterling reported a record signed backlog of $3.88 billion and a record combined backlog of $5.2 billion. Given that more than 90% of Sterling’s E-Infrastructure signed backlog is tied to mission-critical projects like data centers, the company has unusually high revenue visibility, which led to management confidently raising its guidance. Sterling now expects FY26 sales to be around $3.7 billion-$3.8 billion, coming in ahead of Wall Street’s consensus of $3.12 billion or 25% growth. It’s also noteworthy that E-Infrastructure projects often carry mid 20% a...

Sterling reported a record Q1 with revenue up 92%, adjusted diluted EPS up 120%, adjusted EBITDA more than doubled and margins at a first-quarter record of 20%, while signed backlog rose to $3.8 billion (combined backlog $5.2 billion) and total visibility approached $6.5 billion, including a >$500 million first phase of a multi‑phase semiconductor campus. E‑Infrastructure led growth with revenue up 174% (organic >100%) driven by data centers and mission‑critical work (over 90% of E‑Infrastructure signed backlog), aided by the CEC acquisition and management expects E‑Infrastructure revenue growth of 80%+ in 2026 with mid‑20% adjusted operating margins. Management raised full‑year 2026 guidance to $3.7–$3.8 billion revenue, adjusted diluted EPS of $18.40–$19.05 and adjusted EBITDA of $843–$873 million; the company ended the quarter with $512 million cash, $287 million debt (net cash $224 million), repurchased $12 million of stock and has $362 million remaining buyback authorization. Interested in Sterling Infrastructure, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. 3 Small Caps Drawing Insider and Institutional Support Sterling Infrastructure (NASDAQ:STRL) reported a strong start to 2026, citing record first-quarter profitability, sharply higher backlog, and improving visibility tied primarily to mission-critical work such as data centers, manufacturing projects, and a newly awarded semiconductor fabrication campus project. Chief Executive Officer Joe Cutillo said the company delivered “strong revenue growth of 92% and adjusted diluted EPS growth of 120%” in the first quarter. He added that adjusted EBITDA more than doubled and that adjusted EBITDA margin expanded by more than 150 basis points year over year to a first-quarter record of 20%. → Roblox Stock Slides to New Low as Safety Changes Weigh on Outlook Will Fed Rate-Hike Pause Lead To Small-Cap Outperformance? Cutillo emphasized selectivity amid strong demand. “We’re not looking to win all projects. We are looking to win the best projects,” he said. Backlog increased materially during the quarter. Cutillo said signed backlog ended the quarter at $3.8 billion, up 78% year over year, while combined backlog rose 131% to $5.2 billion. He also highlighted “high probability future phase opportunities” totaling more than $1.3 billion. Taken together, signed backlog, unsigned awards, and future phase opportunities...

Primoris earnings tumbled 40%, worse than expected, But two heavy construction peers beat views late.