STERLING INFRASTRUCTURE, INC. (STRL)

Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This quarterly report on Form 10-Q (“Report”), including the documents incorporated herein by reference, contains statements that are, or may be considered to be, “forward-looking statements” regarding the Company which represent our expectations and beliefs concerning future events. These forward-looking statements are intended to be covered by the safe harbor for certain forward-looking statements provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements included or incorporated by reference herein relate to matters that are not based on historical facts and reflect our current expectations as of the date of this Report, regarding items such as: our industry and business outlook, including relating to federal, state and municipal funding for projects, the residential home building market and demand from our customers; business strategy, including the integration of recent acquisitions and the potential for additional future acquisitions; expectations and estimates relating to our backlog; expectations concerning our market position; future operations; margins; profitability; capital expenditures; liquidity and capital resources; and other financial and operating information. Forward-looking statements may use or contain words such as “anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “future,” “intend,” “likely,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “strategy,” “will,” “would” and similar terms and phrases.

Actual events, results and outcomes may differ materially from those anticipated, projected or assumed in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors. Although it is not possible to identify all of these factors, they include, among others, the following:

•factors that affect demand for our services or demand in end markets, including economic recessions or volatile economic cycles;

•cost escalations associated with our contracts, due to changes in availability, proximity and cost of construction materials and fuel for our equipment, geopolitical conflicts (such as the conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East) and related disruptions to the global energy markets, changes in U.S. trade policies and retaliatory responses from other countries, and cost escalations associated with subcontractors and labor;

•any action or inaction of suppliers, subcontractors, design engineers, joint venture partners, customers, competitors, banks, surety companies and others which is beyond our control, including the failure of suppliers, subcontractors and joint venture partners to perform their obligations;

•factors that affect the accuracy of estimates inherent in the bidding for contracts, estimates of backlog, and “over time” revenue recognition accounting policies, including onsite conditions that differ materially from those assumed in the original bid, contract modifications, mechanical problems with machinery or equipment and effects of other risks referenced below;

•changes in costs to lease, acquire or maintain our equipment;

•changes in general economic conditions, including reductions in federal, state and local government funding for projects, changes in those governments’ budgets, practices, laws and regulations and interest rate fluctuations and other adverse economic factors beyond our control in our geographic markets;

•the presence of competitors with greater financial resources or lower margin requirements than ours, and the impact of competitive bidders on our ability to obtain new backlog at reasonable margins acceptable to us;

•design/build contracts which subject us to the risk of design errors and omissions;

•our ability to obtain bonding or post letters of credit;

•adverse weather conditions;

•potential disruptions, failures or security breaches of the information technology systems on which we rely to conduct our business or failure to comply with laws and regulations regarding data privacy and cybersecurity;

•potential risks and uncertainties relating to major public health crises;

•our dependence on a limited number of significant customers;

•our ability to attract and retain key personnel;

•increased unionization of our workforce or labor costs and any work stoppages or slowdowns;

•federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations where non-compliance can result in penalties and/or termination of contracts as well as civil and criminal liability;

•our ability to obtain, maintain, and comply with governmental permits, licenses, and approvals;

•citations issued by any governmental authority, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration;

•our ability to qualify as an eligible bidder under government contract criteria;

•delays or difficulties related to the completion of our projects, including additional costs, reductions in revenues or the payment of liquidated damages, or delays or difficulties related to obtaining required governmental permits and approvals;

•any prolonged shutdown of the government;

•our ability to successfully identify, finance, complete and integrate recent and potential acquisitions or our ability to identify all liabilities associated with an acquired business or asset prior to our acquisition;

•our ability to raise additional capital in the future on favorable terms or at all;

•our ability to generate cash flows sufficient to fund our financial commitments and objectives;

•our ability to meet the terms and conditions of our debt obligations and covenants; and

•the other risks discussed in more detail in the Company’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025 (the “2025 Form 10-K”) under “Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors,” other portions of this Report, or our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).

In reading this Report, you should consider these factors carefully in evaluating any forward-looking statements and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect our current expectations as of the date of this Report regarding future events, results or outcomes. These expectations may or may not be realized. Some of these expectations may be based upon assumptions or judgments that prove to be incorrect. Additional factors or risks that we currently deem immaterial, that are not presently known to us or that arise in the future could also cause our actual results to differ materially from our expected results. Given these uncertainties, investors are cautioned that many of the assumptions upon which our forward-looking statements are based are likely to change after the date the forward-looking statements are made. Further, we may make changes to our business plans that could affect our results. Although we believe that our plans, intentions and expectations reflected in, or suggested by, the forward-looking statements that we make in this Report are reasonable, we can provide no assurance that they will be achieved.

The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements for any reason, whether as a result of new information, future events or developments, changed circumstances, or otherwise, and notwithstanding any changes in our assumptions, changes in business plans, actual experience or other changes.

23

OVERVIEW

General—Sterling operates through a variety of subsidiaries within three segments specializing in E-Infrastructure, Transportation and Building Solutions in the United States, primarily across the Southern, Northeastern, Mid-Atlantic and Rocky Mountain regions and the Pacific Islands. E-Infrastructure Solutions provides advanced, large-scale site development services and mission-critical electrical services for data centers, semiconductor fabrication, manufacturing, distribution centers, warehousing, power generation and more. Transportation Solutions includes infrastructure and rehabilitation projects for highways, roads, bridges, airports, ports, rail and storm drainage systems. Building Solutions includes residential and commercial concrete foundations for single-family and multi-family homes, parking structures, elevated slabs, other concrete work, plumbing services, and surveys for new single-family residential builds. From strategy to operations, we are committed to sustainability by operating responsibly to safeguard and improve society’s quality of life. Caring for our people and our communities, our customers and our investors – that is The Sterling Way.

SIGNIFICANT TRANSACTIONS

Stone Ridge Acquisition—On June 1, 2026, Sterling acquired substantially all of the assets of Pocatello, Idaho-based Stone Ridge Contracting, LLC. (“Stone Ridge”), a leading site development contractor. The purchase price was $178.0 million, consisting primarily of $140.0 million in cash and $27.4 million in common stock. Additionally, Stone Ridge has an earn-out opportunity of up to $15 million, contingent upon achievement of a certain EBITDA target. Stone Ridge is included in the Company’s E-Infrastructure Solutions segment.

CEC Acquisition—On September 1, 2025, the Company acquired substantially all of the assets of Irving, Texas-based CEC Facilities Group, LLC (“CEC”), a leading specialty electrical and mechanical contractor. The purchase price was $561.6 million, consisting primarily of $442.9 million in cash and $79.5 million in common stock. Additionally, CEC has an earn-out opportunity of up to an aggregate of $80 million, contingent upon achieving certain operating income targets. CEC is included in the Company’s E-Infrastructure Solutions segment.

MARKET OUTLOOK AND TRENDS

We see favorable opportunities for long-term growth across each of our business segments. We remain focused on our strategic objectives, which include: 1) growth in our E-Infrastructure Solutions segment, with particular focus on large, high-value projects; 2) risk reduction through a continued shift in our Transportation Solutions business away from low-bid heavy highway work, and toward alternative delivery and design-build projects; 3) continuing to grow market share and geographic presence in Building Solutions; and 4) improving our margins in each of our segments.

E-Infrastructure Solutions—Our E-Infrastructure Solutions business is driven by our customers’ investments in the development of data centers, semiconductor fabrication, advanced manufacturing facilities, e-commerce distribution centers and warehouses. We foresee significant growth opportunities tied to the implementation of multi-year capital deployment plans by data center customers, including hyperscalers, colocation providers and others. These investments are driven by the need to support the increasing use of cloud computing applications, increasing adoption and complexity of artificial intelligence applications and digital transformation across industries. Additionally, we continue to see significant opportunity related to the construction of manufacturing capacity in the U.S., including semiconductor fabrication. Following a decline that began in 2023, the e-commerce distribution sector began to strengthen in 2025 and we expect this momentum to continue in 2026.

Transportation Solutions—Our Transportation Solutions business is primarily driven by federal, state and municipal funding. Federal funds, on average, provide 50% of annual State Department of Transportation capital outlays for highway and bridge projects. We benefit from a number of federal, state and local infrastructure investment programs. At the Federal level, the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act (“IIJA”), which establishes funding for the fiscal 2022 through 2026 time

[Excerpt truncated for page length; source filing is linked above.]

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” is provided to assist readers in understanding our financial performance during the periods presented and significant trends that may impact our future performance. This discussion should be read in conjunction with our Consolidated Financial Statements and the related notes thereto.

OVERVIEW

General—Sterling operates through a variety of subsidiaries within three segments specializing in E-Infrastructure, Transportation and Building Solutions in the United States, primarily across the Southern, Northeastern, Mid-Atlantic and Rocky Mountain regions and the Pacific Islands. E-Infrastructure Solutions provides advanced, large-scale site development services and mission-critical electrical services for data centers, semiconductor fabrication, manufacturing, distribution centers, warehousing, power generation and more. Transportation Solutions includes infrastructure and rehabilitation projects for highways, roads, bridges, airports, ports, rail and storm drainage systems. Building Solutions includes residential and commercial concrete foundations for single-family and multi-family homes, parking structures, elevated slabs, other concrete work, plumbing services, and surveys for new single-family residential builds. From strategy to operations, we are committed to sustainability by operating responsibly to safeguard and improve society’s quality of life. Caring for our people and our communities, our customers and our investors – that is The Sterling Way.

SIGNIFICANT TRANSACTIONS

RHB Deconsolidation—Since 2012, the Company has held a 50% ownership interest in Road and Highway Builders, LLC (“RHB”), with Rich Buenting holding the remaining 50% ownership interest. Historically, the Company fully consolidated the entity as a result of its exercise of control of the entity. On December 31, 2024, the parties executed an amendment to the RHB operating agreement to ensure the continuation of this mutually beneficial relationship while addressing the evolving needs and interest of both parties. This amendment modified the way RHB would be dispositioned in the event of the death or disability of Mr. Buenting and provides that in such event, Sterling and Mr. Buenting’s estate must agree on one of four alternatives: (1) continuation of the existing ownership structure, (2) acquisition of Sterling’s 50% interest by Mr. Buenting’s estate at fair market value, (3) acquisition of Mr. Buenting’s 50% interest by Sterling at fair market value or (4) the joint sale of RHB to a third party at fair market value.

Under GAAP, this contractual change required Sterling to no longer consolidate RHB’s results with its own and to use equity method accounting with respect to Sterling’s interest in the entity. Beginning January 1, 2025, the Company reports its portion of RHB’s income as a single line item (“Other operating income (expense), net”) in the Consolidated Statements of Operations and reports its interest in RHB at December 31, 2024, and thereafter, as a single line item (“Investment in unconsolidated subsidiary”) in the Consolidated Balance Sheets. RHB’s revenue is no longer included in Sterling’s consolidated revenue in 2025 and Sterling’s consolidated backlog figures as of December 31, 2024, and thereafter, do not include RHB’s backlog.

Drake Acquisition—During the first quarter of 2025, Sterling acquired Drake Concrete, LLC (“Drake”) (the “Drake Acquisition”). Drake provides concrete slabs for residential home builders in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. The acquisition strengthens Sterling’s geographic footprint within the DFW metroplex and expands and deepens the customer base, given limited customer overlap with Tealstone. The purchase price was $25 million in cash plus a four year earn-out opportunity. The results of Drake are included in our Building Solutions segment.

CEC Acquisition—On September 1, 2025, the Company acquired substantially all of the assets of Irving, Texas-based CEC Facilities Group, LLC (“CEC”) a leading specialty electrical and mechanical contractor. The purchase price was $562 million, consisting primarily of $443 million in cash and $79 million in common stock. Additionally, CEC has an earn-out opportunity of up to an aggregate of $80 million, contingent upon achieving certain operating income targets. CEC is included in the Company’s E-Infrastructure Solutions segment.

MARKET OUTLOOK AND TRENDS

We see favorable opportunities for long-term growth across each of our business segments. We remain focused on our strategic objectives, as described in Item 1 “Business — Business Strategy.” These objectives include: 1) growth in our E-Infrastructure Solutions segment, with particular focus on large, high-value projects; 2) risk reduction through a continued shift in our Transportation Solutions business away from low-bid heavy highway work, and toward alternative delivery and design-build projects; 3) continuing to grow market share and geographic presence in Building Solutions; and 4) improving our margins in each of our segments.

26

E-Infrastructure Solutions—Our E-Infrastructure Solutions business is driven by our customers’ investments in the development of data centers, advanced manufacturing centers, e-commerce distribution centers and warehouses. We foresee significant growth opportunities tied to the implementation of multi-year capital deployment plans by data center customers, including hyperscalers, colocation providers and others. These investments are driven by the need to support the increasing use of cloud computing applications, increasing adoption and complexity of artificial intelligence applications and digital transformation across industries. Additionally, we continue to see significant opportunity related to the construction of manufacturing capacity in the U.S., including semiconductor fabrication. Following a decline that began in 2023, the e-commerce distribution sector began to strengthen in 2025 and we expect this momentum to continue in 2026.

Transportation Solutions—Our Transportation Solutions business is primarily driven by federal, state and municipal funding. Federal funds, on average, provide 50% of annual State Department of Transportation capital outlays for highway and bridge projects. We benefit from a number of federal, state and local infrastructure investment programs. At the Federal level, the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act (“IIJA”), which establishes funding for the fiscal 2022 through 2026 time period, drove significant increases in transportation funding relative to the previous five-year law. The IIJA includes approximately $643 billion in funding for transportation programs ($432 billion for highways, $109 billion for transportation and $102 billion for rail), of which $284 billion is an increase over historic investment levels that will fund new transportation infrastructure. The IIJA also includes $25 billion of funding for airport modernization. As a result of the IIJA, we saw an increase in bid activity and project awards which started in the third quarter of 2022 and continued through 2025. In 2026, we expect that the combination of strong state-level funding in our core geographies and elevated federal funding will allow the transportation market to remain strong relative to historical levels.

Building Solutions—Our Building Solutions segment is comprised of our residential and commercial businesses. The segment is driven by new home starts in Dallas-Fort Worth, the segment’s largest market, and continued expansion in the Houston and Phoenix markets. Building Solutions' core customer base includes top national, regional and custom home builders in our areas. Beginning in the second half of 2024, demand from residential home builder customers began to decline, as prospective homebuyers struggled with affordability challenges. We anticipate that demand will remain muted in the near-term, but believe the dynamics in our markets, including population growth and structural housing shortages, support a return to growth over a multi-year time period.

BACKLOG

Our remaining performance obligations on our projects, as defined in ASC 606, do not differ from what we refer to as “Backlog.” Our Backlog represents the amount of revenues we expect to recognize in the future from our contract commitments on projects. The contracts in Backlog are typically completed in 6 to 36 months. Our unsigned awards (“Unsigned Awards”) are excluded from Backlog until the contract is executed by our customer. We refer to the combination of our Backlog and Unsigned Awards as “Combined Backlog.” Our book-to-burn ratio is determined by taking our additions to Backlog and dividing it by revenue for the applicable period. This metric allows management to monitor the Company’s business development efforts to ensure we grow our Backlog and our business over time, and management believes that this measure is useful to investors for the same reason.

At December 31, 2025, our Backlog was $3.01 billion, as compared to $1.69 billion at December 31, 2024, with a book-to-burn ratio of 1.6X for the year ended December 31, 2025. Included in Backlog at December 31, 2025 is $488.9 million contributed from the electrical and mechanical business acquired late in the third quarter 2025. The Company’s margin in Backlog has increased to 17.8% at December 31, 2025 from 16.7% at December 31, 2024, driven by a greater mix of E-Infrastructure Solutions backlog and an improved backlog margin mix within Transportation Solutions.

Unsigned Awards were $300.7 million at December 31, 2025 and $137.9 million at December 31, 2024. Included in Unsigned Awards at December 31, 2025 is $226.4 million contributed from the electrical and mechanical business acquired late in the third quarter 2025. Combined Backlog totaled $3.31 billion and $1.83 billion at December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively, with a book-to-burn ratio of 1.7X for the year ended December 31, 2025.

Backlog and gross margin:

27

A detailed discussion of our financial and operating results for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024 is presented in the following sections. Discussions of year-over-year comparisons for 2024 and 2023 can be found in “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Part II, Item 7 of our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024.

RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Consolidated Results

The financial highlights for 2025 as compared to 2024 are as follows:

[Excerpt truncated for page length; the complete text is on the linked full-MD&A page.]