STRL vs TPC: How Sterling Infrastructure and Tutor Perini Corporation Compare (2026)

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Reading it: TPC is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. STRL and TPC share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined STRL and TPC exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Sterling Infrastructure is a specialty infrastructure construction company organized around three segments. E-Infrastructure Solutions provides site development for data centers, distribution centers, e-commerce fulfillment facilities, and other large industrial sites. Transportation Solutions provides heavy civil construction for highways, bridges, ports, and aviation. Building Solutions provides concrete services for residential and commercial construction.

Full STRL guide

Tutor Perini builds the things that take years and are hard to finance: subway tunnels, bridges, highways, mass transit stations, hospitals, courthouses, casinos, water treatment plants and military facilities. It operates through three segments. Civil handles heavy public infrastructure (tunnels, bridges, mass transit) and is the highest-margin business. Building covers vertical construction for hospitality, healthcare, education and technology clients. Specialty Contractors provides the electrical, mechanical and plumbing trades that go inside both, often on the company's own projects. Revenue reached roughly $5.95 billion over the trailing twelve months, up about 25%, and work is concentrated in New York, California, Hawaii, Guam and the wider Indo-Pacific region, where military construction spending has been heavy. The company is controlled in practice by the long-tenured Tutor family influence and has a market capitalization near $5 billion.

Full TPC guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• STRL drivers: Data center site development; Reshoring industrial site development.
• TPC drivers: A record backlog converting into revenue; Legacy projects rolling off and margins normalizing.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: Customer concentration in hyperscaler data center work. For TPC, fixed-price construction concentrates risk in a small number of very large jobs, so a single disputed project can swamp the results of an otherwise good year.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick STRL if you believe its drivers more; TPC if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the STRL and TPC guides.

STRL. Sterling trades at a premium to traditional construction reflecting the data center and reshoring exposure. The multiple has expanded with the AI infrastructure thesis. Smaller market cap creates higher volatility than larger infrastructure peers.

TPC. The trailing and forward multiples tell very different stories, which is the crux of the debate on this name. Trailing GAAP EPS of about $2.32 still carries the drag of weaker prior quarters, legal charges and share-based compensation, producing a headline P/E above 40. Against guided 2026 adjusted EPS of $5.15 to $5.45, the same price is roughly 18x to 19x, and against management's statement that 2027 should be substantially higher, lower still. Whether the stock is expensive depends almost entirely on how durable investors judge the current backlog-driven margin level to be.

Headline figures (approximate, early 2026): STRL shows revenue (ttm) ~$2.5 billion, operating margin ~12% (improving with mix), net income (ttm) ~$250 million, eps (ttm) ~$8.00; TPC shows revenue (ttm) ~$5.95 billion, up ~25% year over year, q2 2026 results record ~$1.64 billion revenue (up ~19%), diluted EPS ~$1.23 and adjusted EPS ~$1.74, backlog ~$19.9 billion at June 30, 2026, near a record, 2026 adjusted eps guidance ~$5.15 to $5.45, raised from ~$4.90 to $5.30.

STRL and TPC are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined STRL and TPC exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.