Sterling Check Corp. (NASDAQ:STER) Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Analysts

Shares of Sterling Check Corp. (NASDAQ:STER - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the six ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $15.30.

STER has been the subject of several analyst reports. William Blair cut shares of Sterling Check from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus restated a "hold" rating and issued a $16.50 target price (up from $14.00) on shares of Sterling Check in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $17.00 target price on shares of Sterling Check in a research report on Friday, March 1st.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sterling Check

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Sterling Check by 11.5% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,117,397 shares of the company's stock worth $115,062,000 after acquiring an additional 943,308 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Sterling Check by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,979,401 shares of the company's stock worth $37,600,000 after acquiring an additional 356,649 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its position in shares of Sterling Check by 46.7% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,495,154 shares of the company's stock worth $18,448,000 after purchasing an additional 475,838 shares during the period. Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Sterling Check in the 1st quarter worth approximately $18,939,000. Finally, Sunriver Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Sterling Check by 23.4% in the 4th quarter. Sunriver Management LLC now owns 1,107,704 shares of the company's stock worth $15,419,000 after purchasing an additional 209,823 shares during the period. 84.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Sterling Check Stock Performance

Sterling Check stock traded up $0.04 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $15.51. The company's stock had a trading volume of 768,322 shares, compared to its average volume of 534,644. Sterling Check has a 1-year low of $10.00 and a 1-year high of $16.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.54 and a quick ratio of 1.52. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $15.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $13.99. The company has a market cap of $1.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -155.10 and a beta of 0.49.

Sterling Check (NASDAQ:STER - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.03). Sterling Check had a positive return on equity of 8.47% and a negative net margin of 1.19%. The business had revenue of $169.42 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $173.07 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Sterling Check will post 0.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Sterling Check Company Profile

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.