Melanie Laird Sells 300,000 Shares of Sterling Check Corp. (NASDAQ:STER) Stock

Sterling Check Corp. (NASDAQ:STER) major shareholder Melanie Laird sold 300,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.18, for a total transaction of $5,154,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 10,749,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $184,677,715.68. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Large shareholders that own at least 10% of a company’s stock are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

Melanie Laird also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, September 20th, Melanie Laird sold 22,278 shares of Sterling Check stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.96, for a total value of $377,834.88.

Sterling Check Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STER opened at $17.29 on Friday. Sterling Check Corp. has a 1 year low of $10.00 and a 1 year high of $17.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.69 billion, a P/E ratio of -101.71 and a beta of 0.49. The company’s 50-day moving average is $16.42 and its 200 day moving average is $15.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.62 and a quick ratio of 1.62.

Sterling Check (NASDAQ:STER) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $200.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $199.81 million. Sterling Check had a positive return on equity of 7.73% and a negative net margin of 2.07%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.28 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Sterling Check Corp. will post 0.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Citigroup increased their price objective on Sterling Check from $16.20 to $17.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sterling Check has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $16.20.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sterling Check

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Natixis purchased a new position in Sterling Check during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,006,000. Gabelli Funds LLC bought a new position in Sterling Check during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,475,000. GABELLI & Co INVESTMENT ADVISERS INC. purchased a new position in Sterling Check during the first quarter valued at $1,449,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in Sterling Check in the first quarter worth $921,000. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Sterling Check during the first quarter valued at $18,939,000. Institutional investors own 84.34% of the company’s stock.

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.