Natixis Advisors LLC Acquires New Stake in First Advantage Co. (NYSE:FA)

Natixis Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of First Advantage Co. (NYSE:FA) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 15,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $298,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of FA. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of First Advantage by 16.2% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 15,478 shares of the company’s stock valued at $252,000 after acquiring an additional 2,163 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its position in First Advantage by 155.3% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,713,935 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,841,000 after buying an additional 1,042,473 shares during the last quarter. Olstein Capital Management L.P. boosted its holdings in First Advantage by 28.1% during the 2nd quarter. Olstein Capital Management L.P. now owns 73,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,173,000 after acquiring an additional 16,000 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in First Advantage during the second quarter worth about $378,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of First Advantage by 0.9% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 258,265 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,150,000 after acquiring an additional 2,326 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FA has been the topic of several research analyst reports. 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 report on Wednesday, November 20th. Citigroup upped their price target on First Advantage from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of First Advantage from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of First Advantage in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.83.

First Advantage Price Performance

Shares of First Advantage stock opened at $19.28 on Friday. First Advantage Co. has a 12-month low of $13.88 and a 12-month high of $20.79. The firm has a market cap of $3.33 billion, a PE ratio of 642.67 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a quick ratio of 3.85, a current ratio of 3.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $18.98 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $17.76.

First Advantage (NYSE:FA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.01. First Advantage had a net margin of 0.65% and a return on equity of 13.16%. The business had revenue of $199.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $204.39 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.25 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that First Advantage Co. will post 0.75 EPS 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.