Bull of the Day: Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. (STRL)
Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. STRL is a leading U.S. infrastructure company that’s become an under-the-radar Wall Street star over the past five years, posting massive growth on the back of converging megatrends.
Sterling is benefiting from the artificial intelligence data center boom, reshoring, energy industry expansion, and big spending across traditional infrastructure segments, such as roads and beyond.
The U.S. infrastructure standout, which already more than doubled its earnings between 2021 and 2024, is projected to nearly double its EPS again from 2024 to 2026 on the back of strong sales growth.
STRL’s impressive upward earnings revisions trend earns it a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). And it launched a new $400 million stock repurchase plan in November.
The AI infrastructure-boosted stock has soared over 80% in 2025 as part of a huge ~1,500% run in the last five years. Yet investors can buy the stock around 25% below its November records as it looks to find support at a key technical range.
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Buy Soaring AI Infrastructure Stock STRL Now and Hold
Sterling is a Texas-based infrastructure standout that specializes in heavy civil and site development projects across three main segments: E-Infrastructure, Transportation, and Building Solutions. The firm focuses on the first phase of construction, from site selection to planning and site prep. Sterling boasts that it can “scale to meet any size project.”
The company’s E-Infrastructure Solutions unit operates across large-scale site work for data centers, e-commerce warehouses, manufacturing, and energy. Its Transportation Solutions space, as the name suggests, is focused on highways, bridges, airports, rail, and more. Sterling’s Building Solutions segment is centered around foundations and more for homes, parking structures, and commercial buildings.
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Sterling is capitalizing on compounding megatrends across the U.S. that are just beginning. The company is riding long-term multi-decade upside across the AI data center boom and the rapid energy and grid expansion that’s needed to support the AI age.
On top of that, the U.S. is reshoring critical industries such as semiconductor manufacturing and spending hundreds of billions of dollars on traditional infrastructure such as bridges and roads after decades of neglect.
The firm is ready to grow directly from expansion across “Mission–Critical Markets: Data Centers, Next Generation Manufacturing, Semiconductor Fabrication.”
Infrastructure Stock STRL’s Huge Growth Upside
STRL is landing “mission-critical projects, including data centers and manufacturing.” The company posted a huge beat-and-raise third quarter in early November, topping our Zacks EPS estimate by 25% and providing another round of strong guidance.
It also flexed its financial muscles and upside to shareholders by authorizing a new $400 million stock repurchase program. This backdrop is why all four brokerage recommendations Zacks has are “Strong Buys.”
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It grew its signed backlog 34% YoY to $2.6 billion. “With the addition of CEC, the aggregate of our combined backlog and high-probability future phase work gives us visibility into a pool of work totaling more than $4 billion,” CEO Joe Cutillo said in prepared comments.
Sterling is projected to grow its revenue by 13% in 2025 and 19% next year to reach $2.84 billion, after averaging 14% revenue growth in the trailing five years.
Better yet, it is projected to expand its adjusted earnings by 71% this year and 15% next year to nearly double its bottom line from $6.10 in FY24 to $11.95 share in 2026.
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The growth-heavy infrastructure company’s earnings estimates have surged by 9% for 2025 and 2026 since its Q3 release to earn Sterling a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). The recent positivity extends its impressive run of upward EPS revisions.
It’s also worth stressing that STRL grew its GAAP earnings from $1.50 a share in 2020 to $8.28 in 2024.
Buy this Market-Crushing Stock on the Dip for Upside and Value
STRL has skyrocketed ~1,500% in the past five years to blow away its industry’s 145% and the S&P 500’s 85%. This is part of a much larger surge over the past 25 years. Sterling shares have climbed 80% in 2025, including its 25% drop from its early November records.
The stock jumped 7% on Thursday as the market and the broader AI everything trade rebounded after a mid-week selloff. It found buyers at the critical level highlighted in blue below.
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Sterling trades around 35% below its average Zacks price target. The recent 25% pullback, mixed with its strong earnings outlook, has it trading not too far above its industry and the S&P 500 (both around 22.8X) at 25X forward 12-month earnings. This marks impressive value considering STRL has crushed both over the last five and 25 years.
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Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. (STRL): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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