STERIS plc
- Open
- 231.64
- Day high
- 233.06
- Day low
- 229.85
- Prev close
- 233.78
- Volume
- 841K
- Mkt cap
- $22.7B
- P/E (TTM)
- 28.4
- EPS (TTM)
- $8.20
- P/B
- 3.1
- P/S
- 3.8
- Yield
- 0.54%
- Per share
- $1.26
- ▼Insiders net selling -$2.5M over the last 3 months (0 open-market buys, 5 sales)
- 🏛Institutions mixed (13F)
STERIS plc (STE) is a Healthcare company listed on NYSE. The stock is down 4% over the past year. Over the trailing 3 months, insiders filed 0 open-market buys and 5 sales (SEC Form 4).
STERIS plc (STE) financials & analyst ratings
Fundamentals (TTM)
Analyst consensus · 2 analysts
Source: exchange market data + company filings. Figures are trailing-twelve-month or as most recently reported. For informational purposes only — not investment advice.
STE earnings date, history & EPS estimates
| Report date | EPS est | EPS actual | Surprise | Revenue | Rev. surprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 6, 2026 | $2.49 | $2.59 | +4.0% | $1.5B | +0.3% |
| May 12, 2026 | $2.86 | $2.83 | -1.0% | $1.6B | -0.4% |
| Feb 4, 2026 | $2.53 | $2.53 | +0.0% | $1.5B | -6.2% |
| Nov 5, 2025 | $2.35 | $2.47 | +5.1% | $1.5B | +2.0% |
| May 14, 2025 | $2.60 | $2.74 | +5.4% | $1.5B | +0.8% |
| Feb 5, 2025 | $2.33 | $2.32 | -0.4% | $1.4B | -0.8% |
| Feb 7, 2024 | $2.17 | $2.22 | +2.3% | $1.4B | +3.5% |
| Feb 8, 2023 | $2.22 | $2.02 | -9.0% | $1.2B | -4.5% |
| Aug 2, 2022 | $1.90 | $1.90 | +0.0% | $1.2B | -5.5% |
| Feb 8, 2022 | $1.95 | $2.12 | +8.7% | $1.2B | +1.2% |
| Nov 2, 2021 | $1.83 | $1.99 | +8.7% | $1.2B | +3.9% |
| May 18, 2021 | $1.80 | $1.63 | -9.4% | $874M | -0.1% |
STE insider trading activity (SEC Form 4)
| Date | Insider | Type | Shares | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 12, 2026 | HOLLAND CHRISTOPHER Sdirector | Grant | 1,025 | — |
| Aug 12, 2026 | Boulud Pierredirector | Grant | 1,025 | — |
| Aug 12, 2026 | Sohi Mohsendirector | Grant | 1,099 | $238.91 |
| Aug 12, 2026 | Sohi Mohsendirector | Grant | 1,229 | — |
| Aug 12, 2026 | Alegria Esther M.director | Grant | 1,506 | $238.91 |
| Aug 12, 2026 | FELDMANN CYNTHIA Ldirector | Grant | 1,506 | $238.91 |
| Aug 12, 2026 | Shah Nirav Rdirector | Grant | 1,506 | $238.91 |
| Aug 12, 2026 | Martin Paul Edwarddirector | Grant | 512 | — |
| Aug 12, 2026 | Alegria Esther M.director | Grant | 512 | — |
| Aug 12, 2026 | Shah Nirav Rdirector | Grant | 512 | — |
| Aug 12, 2026 | Shapiro Louisdirector | Grant | 1,025 | — |
| Aug 12, 2026 | Sohi Mohsendirector | Sell | 4,058 | $235.78 |
| Aug 12, 2026 | FELDMANN CYNTHIA Ldirector | Grant | 512 | — |
| Aug 12, 2026 | Martin Paul Edwarddirector | Grant | 1,506 | $238.91 |
| Aug 12, 2026 | Sohi Mohsendirector | Option | 4,058 | $86.23 |
Source: STE SEC Form 4 filings, latest Aug 12, 2026. For informational purposes only — not investment advice.
See the full STE insider & 13F page →STERIS plc company profile
Overview
STERIS plc (NYSE:STE) is an Irish-domiciled multinational corporation that provides infection prevention and procedural products and services to healthcare facilities, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and medical device companies worldwide. Founded in 1985 and publicly traded since 1992, the company has grown through strategic acquisitions and organic expansion to become a leading provider of sterilization, disinfection, and surgical equipment solutions. STERIS operates through four main business segments: Healthcare, Applied Sterilization Technologies, Life Sciences, and Dental, serving customers across hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, and dental practices globally.
Business
STERIS operates in the infection prevention and sterilization industry, which is critical to maintaining safety standards in healthcare and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The company's products and services ensure that medical instruments, pharmaceutical products, and healthcare environments are free from harmful microorganisms that could cause infections or contaminate sterile products. The company operates through four distinct business segments: 1. Healthcare segment (approximately 60% of revenue): This division provides cleaning chemistries and sterility assurance products to hospitals and healthcare facilities. It includes automated endoscope reprocessing systems that clean and disinfect flexible medical scopes, washers and sterilizers for surgical instruments, and capital equipment like surgical tables and lights used directly in operating rooms. The segment also offers equipment maintenance, repair services, and outsourced sterile processing services where STERIS manages the entire sterilization process for healthcare facilities. 2. Applied Sterilization Technologies (AST) segment (approximately 25% of revenue): This business provides contract sterilization services through a network of approximately 50 facilities. Medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers send their products to STERIS facilities where they are sterilized using methods like gamma radiation, electron beam, or ethylene oxide gas. This is essential for single-use medical devices like syringes, catheters, and surgical instruments that must be sterile before reaching patients. 3. Life Sciences segment (approximately 12% of revenue): This division serves pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with specialized cleaning chemistries, barrier products, and sterilization equipment designed for pharmaceutical manufacturing environments. Products include steam sterilizers and vaporized hydrogen peroxide systems that meet the stringent requirements of drug manufacturing facilities. 4. Dental segment (approximately 3% of revenue, being divested): This smaller segment provides dental instruments, infection control products, and water quality systems for dental practices.
Revenue model
STERIS generates revenue through multiple complementary business models that create recurring income streams and capital equipment sales. The company's recurring revenue streams account for approximately 70% of total revenue and include: consumable products like cleaning chemicals and sterilization indicators that must be regularly replenished; service contracts for equipment maintenance, repair, and calibration; and contract sterilization services where customers pay per batch or volume of products sterilized. These recurring revenues provide stable, predictable cash flows as hospitals and pharmaceutical companies require continuous sterilization and cleaning supplies to maintain operations. Capital equipment sales represent the remaining 30% of revenue, including surgical tables, sterilizers, washers, and other durable equipment. While more cyclical, these sales often lead to long-term service contracts and consumable sales, creating an installed base that generates recurring revenue over the equipment's 15-20 year lifespan. The company's margins are influenced by several factors: Volume growth in healthcare procedures directly increases demand for consumables and services, as more surgeries and medical procedures require more sterilization supplies. Pricing power varies by segment, with the company able to implement price increases to offset inflation in labor and raw materials. Manufacturing efficiency improvements and automation help reduce costs, while the mix between higher-margin services/consumables versus lower-margin capital equipment affects overall profitability. External factors include healthcare capital spending cycles, pharmaceutical industry investment in new manufacturing capacity, and regulatory changes affecting sterilization requirements. Competition from alternative sterilization technologies or new market entrants could pressure pricing, while supply chain disruptions can increase input costs and affect margins.
Competitive moat
STERIS possesses a moderate to strong competitive moat built on several defensive characteristics, though it faces some competitive pressures that limit the moat's strength. The company's primary moat stems from its installed base and switching costs. Once hospitals install STERIS sterilization equipment, they typically purchase consumables and service contracts from STERIS for the equipment's 15-20 year lifespan. Switching to competitors requires significant capital investment in new equipment, staff retraining, and regulatory validation processes. This creates substantial customer stickiness, particularly in the Healthcare segment where STERIS has built long-term relationships with major hospital systems and group purchasing organizations. Regulatory barriers and compliance expertise strengthen the moat, as sterilization processes must meet strict FDA, EPA, and international standards. STERIS's decades of experience navigating complex regulatory requirements and maintaining compliance documentation creates barriers for new entrants. The company's validation expertise and established relationships with regulatory bodies are difficult to replicate. The network effects in the AST segment provide additional protection, as STERIS's 50+ sterilization facilities create geographic coverage that smaller competitors cannot match. Medical device manufacturers prefer working with providers who can service multiple locations and provide backup capacity. However, the moat faces several challenges: technological disruption from alternative sterilization methods like low-temperature plasma or ozone could reduce demand for traditional technologies. Large competitors like 3M, Getinge, and Johnson & Johnson have significant resources to compete on innovation and pricing. Commoditization risk exists in some product categories where differentiation is limited. The company also faces potential disruption from regulatory changes, particularly regarding ethylene oxide sterilization, which could require costly facility modifications or technology transitions. Overall, STERIS maintains a solid competitive position with meaningful barriers to entry, but the moat is not impregnable and requires continuous investment in innovation and customer relationships to maintain.
Risks & safety
STERIS demonstrates a strong margin of safety with solid financial fundamentals and manageable risk levels. • Debt and Solvency: Total debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31 indicates conservative leverage. Strong cash flow from operations of $1.15 billion provides ample coverage for debt service. Current ratio of 1.96 shows adequate liquidity to meet short-term obligations. • Cash Generation: Free cash flow of $778 million demonstrates strong cash generation capability. The company is not burning cash and generates substantial excess cash for dividends, debt reduction, and growth investments. • Valuation Metrics: Trading at 36.3x P/E ratio and 27.9x EV/EBITDA, which appears elevated relative to historical norms but reflects the quality of recurring revenue streams. Graham number of $97 suggests the stock may be fairly valued to slightly expensive based on traditional value metrics. • Other Considerations: 70% recurring revenue provides earnings stability and predictability. Strong market positions in essential healthcare services create defensive characteristics. However, potential ethylene oxide litigation and regulatory changes represent contingent liabilities that could impact future cash flows.
Recent development
Over the past few years, STERIS has executed several strategic initiatives to focus on its core competencies and improve operational efficiency. The company completed the divestiture of its Dental segment, allowing management to concentrate resources on the higher-growth Healthcare, AST, and Life Sciences segments that serve more critical markets. A significant restructuring program has been implemented, including the closure of manufacturing facilities and workforce optimization, targeting $100 million in cost savings. This restructuring reflects the company's focus on operational efficiency and margin improvement following the integration of previous acquisitions. The company has made substantial investments in capacity expansion, particularly in the AST segment where it has added new sterilization facilities to meet growing demand from medical device and pharmaceutical customers. This expansion supports the high single-digit growth targets for the AST business. Integration synergies from the Cantel Medical acquisition have been successfully realized, with the company achieving targeted cost synergies while expanding its product portfolio in infection prevention. The integration has strengthened STERIS's position in healthcare consumables and services. Recent earnings calls indicate a strategic shift toward enterprise solutions selling, where STERIS provides comprehensive infection prevention programs to large hospital systems rather than selling individual products. This approach strengthens customer relationships and increases switching costs. The company has also been addressing regulatory challenges, particularly around ethylene oxide sterilization, by investing in facility upgrades and exploring alternative sterilization technologies to maintain compliance with evolving environmental regulations.
STE company profile · for informational purposes only — not investment advice.
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