Sterling Construction (STRL) closed the most recent trading day at $26.58, moving -1.56% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.22%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.19%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.53%.

Coming into today, shares of the civil construction company had gained 0.22% in the past month. In that same time, the Construction sector lost 9.35%, while the S&P 500 lost 6.58%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Sterling Construction as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Sterling Construction to post earnings of $0.37 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 85%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $340.2 million, down 2.02% from the year-ago period.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Sterling Construction. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. Sterling Construction currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Sterling Construction has a Forward P/E ratio of 11.47 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 15.6, which means Sterling Construction is trading at a discount to the group.

The Building Products - Heavy Construction industry is part of the Construction sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 206, putting it in the bottom 20% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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