First Advantage Co. (NYSE:FA) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of First Advantage Co. (NYSE:FA) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $77.25.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research lowered First Advantage from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of First Advantage from $250.00 to $249.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of First Advantage from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On First Advantage

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FA. Quarry LP increased its holdings in First Advantage by 49.7% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 2,607 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 865 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new position in First Advantage in the 2nd quarter valued at about $209,000. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of First Advantage during the second quarter valued at about $211,000. Truist Financial Corp purchased a new stake in shares of First Advantage during the second quarter worth about $234,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of First Advantage by 16.2% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 15,478 shares of the company’s stock worth $252,000 after acquiring an additional 2,163 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.91% of the company’s stock.

First Advantage Price Performance

Shares of FA opened at $18.01 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.62 billion, a PE ratio of 82.86 and a beta of 1.16. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $19.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $17.35. First Advantage has a twelve month low of $12.46 and a twelve month high of $20.75. The company has a current ratio of 4.31, a quick ratio of 4.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

First Advantage (NYSE:FA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.21. The firm had revenue of $184.55 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $184.66 million. First Advantage had a return on equity of 13.94% and a net margin of 3.24%. First Advantage’s revenue was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.24 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that First Advantage will post 0.82 earnings per share for the current 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.