New York State Common Retirement Fund Acquires 82,080 Shares of First Advantage Co. (NYSE:FA)

New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its stake in shares of First Advantage Co. (NYSE:FA - Free Report) by 21.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 469,400 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 82,080 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.27% of First Advantage worth $6,614,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in First Advantage by 49.1% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,350,192 shares of the company's stock worth $156,399,000 after acquiring an additional 2,750,166 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of First Advantage by 48.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,425,305 shares of the company's stock worth $139,076,000 after purchasing an additional 2,409,233 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in First Advantage by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 6,223,937 shares of the company's stock valued at $116,574,000 after purchasing an additional 286,456 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in First Advantage by 246.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 5,227,076 shares of the company's stock valued at $97,903,000 after purchasing an additional 3,718,096 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in First Advantage by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,485,369 shares of the company's stock valued at $84,011,000 after purchasing an additional 50,469 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on First Advantage from $15.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of First Advantage in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut shares of First Advantage from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and set a $20.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, May 9th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, First Advantage presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $20.25.

First Advantage Stock Up 0.5%

First Advantage stock traded up $0.10 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $18.36. 813,553 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,090,131. First Advantage Co. has a one year low of $12.32 and a one year high of $20.79. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $17.44 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.54. The company has a current ratio of 3.85, a quick ratio of 3.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company has a market cap of $3.19 billion, a PE ratio of 612.00 and a beta of 1.24.

First Advantage (NYSE:FA - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.04. First Advantage had a return on equity of 13.16% and a net margin of 0.65%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 109.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.17 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that First Advantage Co. will post 0.74 EPS for the current year.

First Advantage Profile

First Advantage Corporation provides employment background screening, identity, and verification solutions worldwide. It offers pre-onboarding products and solutions, such as criminal background checks, drug/health screening, extended workforce screening, FBI channeling, identity checks and biometric fraud mitigation tools, education/work history verification, driver records and compliance, healthcare credentials, executive screening, and other screening products.