A construction company CEO walked onto Jim Cramer’s set Friday and made a claim that stopped everyone in their tracks: Sterling Infrastructure (NASDAQ:STRL | STRL Price Prediction) CEO Joesph Cutillo noted the company had outperformed NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) since 2015. With NVIDIA widely considered the ‘story stock’ of the entire stock market, that’s a bold claim! Here’s how the interaction went:
Jim Cramer: Well, Joe, did you ever think that your stock would have this kind of run?
Joe Cutillo: I started in 2015… Over the time frame, we’ve outperformed NVIDIA.
Let’s unpack this statement a little bit. Has Sterling Infrastructure actually outperformed NVIDIA since 2015? Also, if the stock has performed that well, does it still have room to run?
So What Does Sterling Actually Do?
Sterling isn’t a household name, but it should be. The company operates across three segments: E-Infrastructure Solutions (data center site preparation and utility installation), Transportation Solutions (highways, bridges, airports), and Building Solutions (residential and commercial concrete foundations). It’s the largest excavating contractor in the United States.
The pivot that changed everything? Data centers. AI infrastructure buildout requires massive ground preparation before a single server goes in, and Sterling is the company doing exactly that. Stifel analysts initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $486 price target, citing the company’s growing exposure to AI and data center construction.
The Numbers Back the Story
Sterling’s Q4 2025 revenue came in at $755.6 million, a 51.5% year-over-year jump that crushed estimates. Adjusted diluted EPS grew 78% to $3.08. The E-Infrastructure segment alone grew 122.6% year-over-year to $521 million in Q4.
CEO Joe Cutillo put it plainly on the earnings call: “This is the fifth consecutive year we have achieved adjusted EPS growth of over 35%.”
Signed backlog surged 78% to $3.01 billion, with total visibility approaching $4.5 billion. For 2026, management is guiding revenue of $3.05 to $3.20 billion and adjusted EPS of $13.45 to $14.05.
Does Sterling Really Top NVIDIA?
According to his bio on Sterling’s website, Joseph Cutillo first joined the company in October 2015. If we plug both companies’ returns to the end of October, we find:
Returns from November 2, 2015, to Today:
- NVIDIA: 24,595%
- Sterling Infrastructure: 10,445%
If we adjust the date to October 1, 2015, the story doesn’t really change.
Returns from October 1, 2015, to Today:
- NVIDIA: 29,224%
- Sterling Infrastructure: 10,069%
So, it seems unlikely Sterling has actually performed NVIDIA across that time. Yet, that performance is still remarkable!
In 2015, Sterling reported -$.83 in normalized earnings on $623.6 million in revenue. By 2020, that number was up to $1.52 in normalized earnings and revenue of $1.427 billion.
As we noted earlier, management is guiding to adjusted EPS of $13.75 at the midpoint this year, which is nearly ten-fold from 2020’s results. To see truly astounding returns, it requires extremely solid business performance, and Sterling has delivered just that.
Can It Continue?
The honest answer: possibly, but much of the stock’s gains have already been realized. STRL is up 242% over the past year and trades at roughly 42x earnings. The AI data center construction boom is real, but valuation now reflects a lot of optimism.
Still, when a construction company’s CEO can sit across from Jim Cramer and credibly invoke NVIDIA in a stock performance conversation, it draws attention. Sterling quietly built one of the most remarkable runs in the market by doing the unglamorous work that makes the AI revolution physically possible. The ground beneath every hyperscaler campus? That’s Sterling’s lane.
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