Sterling Check Corp. (NASDAQ:STER) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Sterling Check Corp. (NASDAQ:STER) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the six analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $15.30.

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Sterling Check from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $17.00 target price on shares of Sterling Check in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “hold” rating and set a $16.50 target price (up previously from $14.00) on shares of Sterling Check in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, William Blair cut Sterling Check from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st.

Sterling Check Stock Performance

Shares of Sterling Check stock opened at $16.06 on Tuesday. Sterling Check has a one year low of $10.00 and a one year high of $16.68. The company has a market cap of $1.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.33 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a current ratio of 1.52. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $14.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $13.43.

Sterling Check (NASDAQ:STER) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by ($0.03). Sterling Check had a positive return on equity of 9.47% and a negative net margin of 0.02%. The company had revenue of $169.42 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $173.07 million. On average, research analysts predict that Sterling Check will post 0.79 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sterling Check

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of STER. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Sterling Check by 11.5% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,117,397 shares of the company’s stock valued at $115,062,000 after purchasing an additional 943,308 shares during the period. Progeny 3 Inc. boosted its holdings in Sterling Check by 19.5% in the second quarter. Progeny 3 Inc. now owns 3,838,912 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,065,000 after purchasing an additional 626,400 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Sterling Check by 13.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,979,401 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,600,000 after purchasing an additional 356,649 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in Sterling Check by 2.4% in the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,888,941 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,960,000 after purchasing an additional 66,555 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Sterling Check by 59.2% in the second quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,959,579 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,024,000 after purchasing an additional 728,411 shares during the period. 84.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Sterling Check

Sterling Check Corp. provides technology-enabled background and identity verification services in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company offers identity verification services, such as telecom and device verification, identification document verification, facial recognition with biometric matching, social security number verification, and live video chat identification proofing; fingerprinting; background checks, including criminal record checks, sex offender registries, civil court records, motor vehicle and driving license records, executive investigations, credit reports, social media searches, and contingent workforce solutions; liens, judgments, and bankruptcies; and sanctions, risk, and compliance checks.