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

First Advantage Co. (NYSE:FA) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $77.25.

FA has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial cut 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. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of First Advantage from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th.

Institutional Trading of First Advantage

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in FA. Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. lifted its stake in First Advantage by 24.6% in the first quarter. Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. now owns 603,022 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,781,000 after acquiring an additional 119,100 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in First Advantage by 8.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,131,188 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,314,000 after acquiring an additional 254,219 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in First Advantage by 9.4% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,777,481 shares of the company’s stock worth $93,711,000 after acquiring an additional 496,898 shares during the period. Cat Rock Capital Management LP lifted its stake in First Advantage by 10.0% in the fourth quarter. Cat Rock Capital Management LP now owns 3,325,859 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,109,000 after acquiring an additional 303,000 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in 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 during the period. 94.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

First Advantage Stock Performance

FA stock opened at $19.85 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 4.31, a current ratio of 4.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. First Advantage has a twelve month low of $12.46 and a twelve month high of $20.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 90.23 and a beta of 1.16. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $18.44 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.93.

First Advantage (NYSE:FA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21. First Advantage had a net margin of 3.24% and a return on equity of 13.94%. The business had revenue of $184.55 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $184.66 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.24 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, 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.