Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. key statistics and ratios
In fiscal 2025, Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. had return on equity of 30.3%, an operating margin of 16.3%, debt equal to 26.4% of equity and a current ratio of 1.01. Each ratio below is calculated from the figures on its income statement, balance sheet and cash flow pages.
Financial ratios
| Fiscal year | 2009Dec 2009 | 2010Dec 2010 | 2011Dec 2011 | 2012Dec 2012 | 2013Dec 2013 | 2014Dec 2014 | 2015Dec 2015 | 2016Dec 2016 | 2017Dec 2017 | 2018Dec 2018 | 2019Dec 2019 | 2020Dec 2020 | 2021Dec 2021 | 2022Dec 2022 | 2023Dec 2023 | 2024Dec 2024 | 2025Dec 2025 | LTMSept 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross margin | 13.9% | 13.6% | 7.9% | 7.5% | −5.4% | 4.8% | 4.4% | 6.1% | 9.3% | 10.6% | 9.6% | 14.6% | 14.4% | 15.5% | 17.1% | 20.1% | 23.0% | 23.8% |
| Operating margin | 9.5% | 7.8% | −10.4% | 2.5% | −12.4% | −0.6% | −2.3% | −0.7% | 2.7% | 4.1% | 3.4% | 7.5% | 7.6% | 9.0% | 10.4% | 12.5% | 16.3% | 18.2% |
| Net margin | 6.1% | 4.2% | −7.2% | −0.0% | −13.3% | −1.5% | −3.3% | −1.3% | 1.2% | 2.4% | 3.5% | 3.4% | 4.4% | 6.0% | 7.0% | 12.2% | 11.7% | 12.9% |
| Free-cash-flow margin | 10.8% | 7.3% | −0.6% | −2.0% | −6.6% | −3.6% | 0.1% | 4.8% | 1.6% | 2.5% | 2.4% | 7.3% | 7.9% | 8.9% | 21.0% | 19.7% | 14.6% | 10.9% |
| Return on equity | 10.3% | 7.9% | −15.5% | −0.1% | −43.6% | −7.4% | −17.8% | −9.1% | 9.3% | 16.5% | 20.8% | 17.4% | 20.0% | 25.5% | 25.4% | 36.1% | 30.3% | 42.4% |
| Return on assets | — | 5.2% | −10.7% | −0.1% | −24.5% | −3.4% | −7.1% | −3.3% | 3.0% | 5.3% | 5.6% | 4.5% | 5.7% | 8.0% | 8.6% | 13.6% | 12.5% | 18.1% |
| Asset turnover | — | 1.25 | 1.49 | 1.98 | 1.84 | 2.32 | 2.18 | 2.43 | 2.50 | 2.19 | 1.59 | 1.30 | 1.29 | 1.32 | 1.23 | 1.12 | 1.07 | 1.41 |
| Current ratio | — | 2.55 | 2.37 | 2.13 | 1.08 | 1.50 | 1.29 | 1.20 | 1.53 | 1.69 | 1.24 | 1.12 | 1.24 | 1.34 | 1.25 | 1.38 | 1.01 | 1.04 |
| Debt to equity | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.4% | 11.6% | 6.6% | 28.4% | 21.1% | 6.1% | 72.8% | 55.8% | 201.5% | 140.5% | 127.5% | 91.6% | 55.6% | 39.3% | 26.4% | 6.3% |
| Effective tax rate | — | — | — | −3.4% | — | — | — | — | 0.7% | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Capital spending as % of revenue | 1.4% | 2.9% | 4.8% | 5.9% | 2.6% | 2.0% | 1.3% | 1.6% | 1.0% | 1.3% | 1.4% | 2.7% | 3.3% | 3.4% | 3.3% | 3.8% | 3.1% | 3.3% |
| Free cash flow ÷ net income | 177.5% | 176.4% | — | — | — | — | — | — | 132.1% | 104.4% | 66.8% | 212.8% | 179.2% | 148.6% | 298.7% | 161.6% | 125.0% | 85.0% |
| Dividends and buybacks ÷ free cash flow | 0.0% | 0.0% | — | — | — | — | — | 0.0% | 0.0% | 18.0% | 12.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 17.0% | 20.5% | 28.2% |
| Quarter | 2024 Q4Dec 2024 | 2025 Q1Mar 2025 | 2025 Q2Jun 2025 | 2025 Q3Sept 2025 | 2025 Q4Dec 2025 | 2026 Q1Mar 2026 | 2026 Q2Jun 2026 | 2026 Q3Sept 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross margin | 21.4% | 22.0% | 23.3% | 24.7% | 21.7% | 23.5% | 24.8% | 24.1% |
| Operating margin | 12.5% | 13.0% | 17.0% | 18.2% | 15.9% | 16.7% | 18.8% | 19.6% |
| Net margin | 22.7% | 9.2% | 11.6% | 13.4% | 11.6% | 11.6% | 13.3% | 13.7% |
| Free-cash-flow margin | 31.8% | 15.5% | 11.7% | 9.3% | 21.1% | 17.7% | 9.6% | 3.4% |
| Current ratio | 1.38 | 1.32 | 1.42 | 1.00 | 1.01 | 1.10 | 1.11 | 1.04 |
| Debt to equity | 39.1% | 38.5% | 33.8% | 28.0% | 26.3% | 24.2% | 20.9% | 6.3% |
Financial health
- Short-term assets cover short-term liabilities $1.7bn of assets due within a year against $1.6bn of liabilities due within a year.
- Short-term assets cover long-term liabilities $1.7bn short-term assets against $335m of longer-dated liabilities.
- More cash than debt $217m of cash against $95m of debt.
- Debt below 40% of shareholders' equity Debt is 6% of equity.
- Debt burden no higher than five years ago Debt to equity moved from 111% to 6% over five years.
- A year's operating cash flow covers at least 20% of debt $613m of operating cash flow against $95m of debt.
- Operating profit covers interest at least five times over No material interest expense reported.
Moat
Weak moat
How hard Sterling Infrastructure's competitive advantage looks for rivals to wear away, judged from 10 years of its own filings: returns on capital, pricing power, profit durability, cash conversion and discipline.
- Returns on capital 7 / 20
Net income has been a median 5.6% of total assets over 10 years.
- Pricing power 5 / 20
Gross margin has been a median 15.4%, moving by 5.2 percentage points (standard deviation) across 10 years.
- Durability 4 / 20
Operating margin has been a median 8.6%; its worst year was 1.6%.
- Cash conversion 14 / 20
Free cash flow was positive in 10 of 10 years, at a median 7.9% of revenue.
- Discipline 14 / 20
The diluted share count rose 7.6% over five years; stock-based pay has been a median 0.7% of revenue.
AI disruption exposure: Low. In this industry, the business rests on physical assets, regulated networks or products AI itself depends on.
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