10 Red Days In A Row: Sterling Infrastructure Stock Is Down 27%

STRLYTD+34.6%SPYYTD+13.4%XLIYTD+8.1%
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Shares of Sterling Infrastructure (STRL) have closed lower in each of the last 10 sessions, a cumulative decline of 26.9%. That erased about $4.6 billion from the company’s market value, which now stands at about $12.7 billion. The stock closed at $412.25 on Tuesday, October 20, 58.5% below its 52-week high of $993.74 and 45.4% above its low of $283.57.

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The Streak Next To The S&P 500

Returns for STRL and the S&P 500 over the streak and the periods around it, all ending Tuesday, October 20 and including dividends:
 

Return Period STRL S&P 500
1 Day -2.7% 0.3%
10 Days (Current Streak) -26.9% -1.3%
1 Month (21 Trading Days) -19.6% -0.6%
3 Months (63 Trading Days) -42.7% 3.1%
Year To Date 34.6% 13.7%
1 Year (252 Trading Days) 15.9% 17.1%

How The Streak Compares With The Market

The market explains little of this: the S&P 500 lost 1.3% over the same 10 sessions, including dividends, against Sterling Infrastructure’s -26.9%. Over the past three months the stock is down 42.7%, a window that includes the streak; over the other 53 sessions of that window it was down 21.6%.

What The Numbers Say About The Slide

On the fundamentals, revenue grew 60.8% over the last twelve months, against a median of 7.3% for S&P 500 Industrials stocks; its operating margin is 18.1%, versus a median of 17.6%; and the stock trades at 29.3 times trailing earnings against a median of 27.2. The read is mixed.

A slide like this raises an obvious follow-up: which marked-down stocks are actually worth buying? Our Buy the Dip screen runs that test every day, flagging beaten-down names whose fundamentals still hold up.

Weakness In One Name Should Be Noise, Not News

For a diversified holder, a streak like this is a data point. For a concentrated one, it is a hole in the plan. The difference is never the stock; it is the portfolio built around it.

Building that portfolio is what the Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio does: roughly 30 businesses with the cash generation and balance-sheet strength to absorb a bad month, selected and rebalanced by rules. It has a track record of outpacing a benchmark that combines the S&P 500, the S&P MidCap 400, and the Russell 2000. Make the next streak, in either direction, someone else’s drama.