Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms “Outperform” Rating for First Advantage (NYSE:FA)

First Advantage (NYSE:FA)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reissued by stock analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $22.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 18.53% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on FA. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of First Advantage in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of First Advantage in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of First Advantage in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $20.00 price target on the stock. Wolfe Research lowered shares of First Advantage from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of First Advantage from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $53.29.

First Advantage Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FA traded down $0.01 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $18.56. 156,532 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 521,427. First Advantage has a twelve month low of $14.01 and a twelve month high of $20.79. 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 50 day moving average price of $18.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $18.46. The stock has a market cap of $3.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 619.70 and a beta of 1.17.

First Advantage (NYSE:FA) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $199.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $204.39 million. First Advantage had a net margin of 0.65% and a return on equity of 13.16%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.25 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that First Advantage will post 0.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of First Advantage

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC grew its position in First Advantage by 50.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,600,026 shares of the company’s stock valued at $111,161,000 after acquiring an additional 1,886,716 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of First Advantage by 8.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,131,188 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,314,000 after purchasing an additional 254,219 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in First Advantage by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,294,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,692,000 after purchasing an additional 9,718 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in First Advantage by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,253,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,874,000 after purchasing an additional 72,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Emerald Advisers LLC raised its holdings in First Advantage by 2.1% in the third quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 1,183,050 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,484,000 after buying an additional 24,217 shares during the period. 94.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.