First Advantage Co. (NYSE:FA) Given Consensus Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Key Points

• First Advantage Co. has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from analysts, with five firms recommending a hold, two a buy, and one a strong buy.
• The stock's average one-year target price among brokerages is $20.25, with recent upgrades and adjustments from analysts, including an increase in price objectives from Barclays.
• In its last earnings report, First Advantage posted $0.27 earnings per share, surpassing expectations, and the company's revenue for the quarter was up 111.7% compared to the prior year.

Shares of First Advantage Co. (NYSE:FA - Get Free Report) have been given an average rating of "Moderate Buy" by the eight ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $20.25.

FA has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Zacks Research upgraded First Advantage from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of First Advantage in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on First Advantage from $15.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 29th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On First Advantage

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in shares of First Advantage by 724.5% in the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,256,511 shares of the company's stock valued at $87,311,000 after buying an additional 4,618,946 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of First Advantage by 200.1% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,409,427 shares of the company's stock valued at $62,130,000 after buying an additional 2,940,155 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new stake in shares of First Advantage in the fourth quarter valued at about $71,695,000. Sunriver Management LLC grew its stake in shares of First Advantage by 49.2% in the first quarter. Sunriver Management LLC now owns 3,420,507 shares of the company's stock valued at $48,195,000 after buying an additional 1,128,272 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners grew its stake in First Advantage by 19.6% during the 2nd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,896,207 shares of the company's stock valued at $47,866,000 after purchasing an additional 474,634 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.91% of the company's stock.

First Advantage Trading Down 3.1%

NYSE FA traded down $0.50 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $15.78. 671,247 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,029,784. The business's 50 day moving average is $16.84 and its 200-day moving average is $16.01. First Advantage has a 12-month low of $12.32 and a 12-month high of $20.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 526.00 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 3.85 and a current ratio of 3.85.

First Advantage (NYSE:FA - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.03. First Advantage had a return on equity of 13.16% and a net margin of 0.65%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.21 EPS. First Advantage's revenue for the quarter was up 111.7% on a year-over-year basis. First Advantage has set its FY 2025 guidance at 0.860-1.030 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that First Advantage will post 0.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About First Advantage

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.