Brokerages Set Sterling Check Corp. (NASDAQ:STER) PT at $15.30

Shares of Sterling Check Corp. (NASDAQ:STER) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the six analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $15.30.

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

Sterling Check Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:STER opened at $16.08 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.38 and a beta of 0.47. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $14.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $13.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 1.52. Sterling Check has a 1-year low of $10.00 and a 1-year high of $16.68.

Sterling Check (NASDAQ:STER) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $169.42 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $173.07 million. Sell-side analysts predict that Sterling Check will post 0.79 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of STER. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Sterling Check by 53.7% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,322,934 shares of the company’s stock valued at $140,685,000 after purchasing an additional 1,860,674 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted 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 worth $24,024,000 after purchasing an additional 728,411 shares during the period. Progeny 3 Inc. lifted 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 worth $47,065,000 after purchasing an additional 626,400 shares during the period. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in Sterling Check by 46.7% in the third 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. Finally, BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in Sterling Check by 29.0% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,881,118 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,719,000 after purchasing an additional 422,576 shares during the period. 84.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.