Sterling Capital Management LLC

Sterling Capital Management is a private investment management firm that currently operates as a subsidiary of BB&T Corporations. The company can trace its history back to the Nisbet Inc. founded by W. Olin Nisbet, III in 1970. Three years later, the company would be renamed to Sterling Management Company and become a subsidiary of Interstate Securities. In 1977, Leigh and Olin would buy the company from Interstate Securities. By 1980, Sterling Management Company would reach $100 million in assets under management. The company would pass hands again in 1984, this time being sold to UAM. In the early 1990s, the company would merge with Trinity Capital Advisors and reach $1 billion in assets under management, changing its name to its current Sterling Capital Management. The company would then purchase itself from UAM to become independent and owned by its employees, although it would again be purchased by BB&T Corporation in a few years. Sterling Capital Management would then merge within the BB&T umbrella with BB&T Asset Management in 2010 and with CHOICE Asset Management in 2013. The company utilizes a fundamental analysis with a bottom up stock picking approach to make its investment decisions, benchmarking its performances against the Russell 200 Value Index, Russell 2500 Value Index, and Russell Mid Cap Value Index. The company invests most heavily in the finance sector, which alone makes up almost a third of its asset allocations, and also invests in the information technology, consumer discretionary, health care, consumer staples, and industrials sector, among others to a lesser degree, in order of decreasing allocation. Sterling Capital Management currently has over $47 billion in assets under management spread across over 4,700 accounts, the majority of which are discretionary. The company has 134 employees with 29 investment professionals and operates out of its headquarters in Charlotte. The company offers its family of funds through Sterling Capital Funds, including mutual funds such as Equity Income, Special Opportunities, Total Return Bond, Corporate, and Diversified Income funds.