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Sterling Construction vs. Other Publicly Traded Infrastructure Contractors

Sterling Infrastructure spans e-infrastructure, transportation, and building services. See how its mix, 2025 reporting changes, backlog, and scale compare with adjacent public contractors such as Quanta Services.
From TheFinanceBase Team6 min to read
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Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. (NASDAQ: STRL)—often called Sterling Construction—does not have one perfect publicly traded peer. Its three segments span data-center and industrial site development, transportation infrastructure, and residential concrete and related services. Quanta Services is a useful scale comparison, but its utility and power exposure makes it an adjacent, not like-for-like, match.

A meaningful comparison therefore looks beyond revenue: business mix, geography, customer exposure, profitability, acquisitions, backlog definitions, and the public and private investment cycles each company serves all matter.

What Sterling Infrastructure does

Sterling reports three operating segments, each with a different customer base and project environment. Its 2025 annual report describes its principal operating regions as the Southern, Northeastern, Mid-Atlantic, and Rocky Mountain regions, and the Pacific Islands. Sterling Infrastructure 2025 Form 10-K.

  • E-Infrastructure Solutions: Large-scale site development and mission-critical electrical work for data centers, semiconductor fabrication, manufacturing, distribution centers, warehousing, and power generation.
  • Transportation Solutions: Highway, road, bridge, airport, port, rail, and storm-drainage work.
  • Building Solutions: Concrete foundations and other concrete work, plumbing, and surveying for new single-family residential construction, as well as commercial concrete work.

Sterling says it traditionally targets a middle tier of the market: projects too large for small local contractors but too small for the largest national and international firms. Its 10-K also cautions that weaker conditions could draw competitors from both ends of that market into Sterling’s bidding range.

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Which public companies make useful comparisons?

The comparison set is best treated as a group of adjacent infrastructure and construction-services companies, not a list of exact substitutes. Comfort Systems USA’s 2025 annual report names Comfort Systems USA, EMCOR Group, IES Holdings, MasTec, MYR Group, Primoris Services, Quanta Services, and Sterling Infrastructure among large publicly traded U.S. construction-services companies. It also notes that competition varies by geography and that many services are local or regional. That list identifies candidates; it does not establish that every company competes with Sterling for every kind of project. Comfort Systems USA 2025 Form 10-K.

Quanta Services is the clearest scale comparison in the available figures, but its business mix is different. Quanta describes work across utility, power generation, load center, communications, pipeline, and energy markets. Its investor-relations materials estimate that 2025 revenue mix was 70% utility and power, 17% energy and other, and 13% technology, manufacturing, and communications. Quanta Services investor relations.

That utility-and-power emphasis makes Quanta relevant to the broader infrastructure-services landscape, but not a direct stand-in for Sterling’s combination of site development, transportation work, and residential building services. Other companies in the candidate set also have distinct specialties and geographic footprints; the available evidence does not establish a single, uniform peer group across Sterling’s three segments.

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How Sterling and Quanta compare on reported scale

Measure Sterling Infrastructure Quanta Services
2025 consolidated revenue $2.490 billion, reported by Sterling for 2025. RHB revenue was not consolidated beginning January 1, 2025; CEC Facilities Group was acquired September 1, 2025. $28.48 billion, reported by Quanta for 2025.
Backlog figure cited At second-quarter 2026, 92% of E-Infrastructure backlog was mission-critical projects. Sterling also described a combined pool of more than $7.0 billion covering signed backlog, unsigned awards, and future-phase opportunities; this is not signed backlog alone. $43.98 billion total backlog at December 31, 2025, as reported by Quanta.
Revenue and mix context Three segments cover e-infrastructure, transportation, and building services. Sterling’s 2025 consolidated revenue reflects the RHB deconsolidation and the partial-year inclusion of CEC. Quanta estimated its 2025 revenue mix as 70% utility and power, 17% energy and other, and 13% technology, manufacturing, and communications.

Quanta reported $28.48 billion in 2025 revenue, net income of $1,028.4 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $2,876 million in its investor-relations materials; those figures are for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025. Its February 19, 2026 results release reported $43.98 billion of total backlog at year-end. Quanta Services fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results.

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The revenue gap indicates a substantial difference in consolidated scale, not a difference in project quality or investment merit. The figures also do not make the firms directly comparable: the companies operate in different mixes of markets, and Sterling’s reported 2025 revenue reflects changes in consolidation and acquisitions.

Why Sterling’s 2025 revenue needs context

Sterling’s 2025 10-K reports total revenue of $2.490 billion. It deconsolidated Road and Highway Builders (RHB) beginning January 1, 2025, so RHB revenue is not part of Sterling’s 2025 consolidated revenue. RHB backlog was excluded from Sterling’s consolidated backlog beginning December 31, 2024. A year-over-year comparison that treats the reported totals as though the consolidated business were unchanged can therefore mislead.

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Sterling acquired CEC Facilities Group on September 1, 2025, adding a specialty electrical and mechanical contractor to E-Infrastructure Solutions. Because CEC was included only after the acquisition date, 2025 reported results do not represent a full year of CEC operations in Sterling’s consolidated totals.

When comparing operating profitability, use the companies’ reported operating measures and definitions rather than assuming that revenue growth translates directly into comparable margins. Acquisitions and changes in consolidation can affect both revenue and profitability, while the available figures do not provide a matched, adjusted peer-margin comparison across the candidate companies.

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Backlog is not one interchangeable number

Backlog can signal potential future work, but its usefulness depends on what a company counts, the date reported, and how likely the work is to convert to revenue. Sterling’s second-quarter 2026 update said mission-critical projects represented 92% of E-Infrastructure backlog. The company separately described a more-than-$7.0 billion pool that combined signed backlog, unsigned awards, and future-phase opportunities. That broader pool should not be described as signed backlog.

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Quanta reported $43.98 billion in total backlog at December 31, 2025. The reported figures differ in date and scope from Sterling’s second-quarter 2026 opportunity pool, and the latter includes items beyond signed backlog. Comparing the two headline totals as though they were the same contract measure would overstate what the numbers show.

For either company, backlog is not a guarantee of revenue, timing, or margin. A useful comparison asks whether awards are signed, what markets and segments they belong to, what portion remains conditional or represents future phases, and how project schedules and execution affect conversion.

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What drives demand for each company

Sterling: public works and private investment

Sterling’s Transportation Solutions segment connects it to roads, bridges, airports, ports, rail, and drainage projects, while E-Infrastructure and Building Solutions expose it to private investment in data centers, manufacturing, semiconductor facilities, distribution and warehousing, and new residential construction. The mix means Sterling is not simply a public-works contractor or simply a data-center contractor.

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In its second-quarter 2026 release, Sterling said mission-critical projects—including data centers, manufacturing, and semiconductor facilities—made up 92% of E-Infrastructure backlog. It raised its full-year 2026 guidance to revenue of $4.00–$4.15 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $891–$916 million. These are management’s guidance figures, not realized results. Sterling Infrastructure second-quarter 2026 results.

Quanta: utility, power, and other infrastructure markets

Quanta’s stated markets include utility, power generation, load center, communications, pipeline, and energy. Its 2025 mix estimate places most revenue in utility and power, with smaller portions in energy and other, and technology, manufacturing, and communications. That composition creates a different exposure profile from Sterling’s segment mix, even where both companies participate in broad infrastructure or technology-related investment.

In its February 19, 2026 results release, Quanta CEO and President Duke Austin characterized company performance and demand as strong, citing record backlog and accelerating demand in its Electric segment. This is company commentary, not an independent assessment of the sector: “Quanta closed 2025 with another strong quarter, delivering double-digit year-over-year growth in revenue and adjusted EBITDA, while achieving record fourth-quarter and full-year results across multiple key financial metrics. Backlog was exceptionally strong at a record $44.0 billion, reflecting accelerating demand in our Electric segment and sustained activity across our end markets, which positions us well heading into 2026.”

A practical framework for comparing contractors

Before drawing conclusions from a public-company comparison, check the following items in each company’s latest filings and results releases:

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  • Services and end markets: Identify which segments overlap with Sterling’s site development, transportation, electrical, concrete, plumbing, and surveying work. A shared label such as “infrastructure contractor” does not establish a shared project market.
  • Geography and customers: Compare operating regions and customer exposure. Contractor competition can vary locally, and national revenue totals can obscure regional differences.
  • Revenue and profitability: Align reporting periods and consolidation scope. Note acquisitions, divestitures, deconsolidations, and whether profitability figures are GAAP or adjusted.
  • Backlog and visibility: Separate signed backlog from unsigned awards and future-phase opportunities. Check the reporting date, segment mix, and any stated conversion or cancellation conditions.
  • Investment drivers: Distinguish public transportation work from private investment in data centers, manufacturing, utilities, power, housing, and other end markets.
  • Scale and project size: Consider not only total revenue, but also the kinds of projects pursued and Sterling’s stated position between smaller local contractors and the largest national and international firms.

This framework is more informative than ranking the companies by revenue alone. It also avoids treating all firms named in a broad construction-services comparison as direct rivals in every Sterling business.

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