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

Sterling Check Corp. (NASDAQ:STER) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the six research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $16.20.

Separately, Citigroup increased their target price on Sterling Check from $16.20 to $17.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th.

Sterling Check Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:STER opened at $16.74 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.62 and a quick ratio of 1.62. The stock has a market cap of $1.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -98.47 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a 50 day moving average of $16.57 and a 200-day moving average of $15.75. Sterling Check has a one year low of $10.00 and a one year high of $18.04.

Sterling Check (NASDAQ:STER) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $200.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $199.81 million. Sterling Check had a positive return on equity of 7.73% and a negative net margin of 2.07%. Sterling Check’s revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Sterling Check will post 0.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Melanie Laird sold 300,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.18, for a total transaction of $5,154,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 10,749,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $184,677,715.68. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 9.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Sterling Check

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of STER. Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Sterling Check during the first quarter worth $18,939,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Sterling Check in the 1st quarter worth $9,648,000. Alpine Associates Management Inc. increased its holdings in Sterling Check by 24.5% during the 2nd quarter. Alpine Associates Management Inc. now owns 2,477,920 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,673,000 after purchasing an additional 487,600 shares in the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of Sterling Check by 176.2% in the 2nd quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 253,397 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,750,000 after purchasing an additional 161,668 shares during the period. Finally, GABELLI & Co INVESTMENT ADVISERS INC. bought a new stake in shares of Sterling Check in the first quarter valued at about $1,449,000. 84.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.