Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms "Hold" Rating for First Advantage (NYSE:FA)

First Advantage (NYSE:FA - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "hold" rating reissued by research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a report issued on Monday, Benzinga reports.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Evercore ISI upped their target price on First Advantage from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on First Advantage from $16.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, William Blair assumed coverage on First Advantage in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. They issued an "outperform" rating on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $18.00.

First Advantage Stock Performance

NYSE FA traded down $0.10 during trading on Monday, reaching $15.89. The company's stock had a trading volume of 293,044 shares, compared to its average volume of 445,354. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $15.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $15.80. First Advantage has a 12 month low of $12.46 and a 12 month high of $17.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a current ratio of 4.29, a quick ratio of 4.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62.

First Advantage (NYSE:FA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.17. First Advantage had a return on equity of 14.12% and a net margin of 4.28%. The business had revenue of $169.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $167.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.19 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that First Advantage will post 0.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On First Advantage

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of First Advantage in the third quarter worth $60,000. National Bank of Canada FI acquired a new stake in shares of First Advantage in the fourth quarter valued at about $179,000. Dark Forest Capital Management LP increased its stake in shares of First Advantage by 14.6% in the third quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 17,343 shares of the company's stock valued at $239,000 after buying an additional 2,211 shares during the period. Andina Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of First Advantage during the fourth quarter worth about $271,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of First Advantage by 46.7% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 19,682 shares of the company's stock worth $271,000 after acquiring an additional 6,270 shares during the period. 94.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

First Advantage Company 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.