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Provides employment background checks, drug testing and identity verification services to employers.
Provides employment background checks, drug testing and identity verification services to employers.
Is paid per check run, so revenue follows employer hiring volumes. Silver Lake, the technology investor, is the largest holder, and the 2024 merger with Sterling Check, another background-screening firm, enlarged it and added customers.
Moat: narrow (scale, switching costs, regulatory licence). Deep integration into employer hiring workflows and compliance expertise create switching costs.
Headquarters: Atlanta, Georgia, United States · Founded: 2003 · Employees: 9,500
Size First Advantage (FA) is a United States Information Technology company (Packaged Software) with a market value of $4.04B, the 1339th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $23.53 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 47.4%, against +1.8% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 3rd highest of 20 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 32.9% over the last twelve months (peer median +23.5%); the operating margin is 10.9% (peer median 5.7%).
Valuation It trades at 17.4× forward earnings against a peer median of 23.1× (5th cheapest of 17).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 21% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +25%, so the hurdle is -5 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 4.2 points below its cost of capital (8.9% WACC).
Short interest Short interest is 5.2% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 4 Mar 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.66B | $1.57B | $860M | $764M | $810M |
| Revenue growth | — | +83% | +13% | -6% | — |
| Gross profit | $479M | $470M | $265M | $248M | $211M |
| EBITDA | $430M | $390M | $212M | $211M | $233M |
| Net income | $25.1M | -$34.8M | -$110M | $37.3M | $64.6M |
| Free cash flow | $195M | $141M | -$4.07M | $135M | $184M |
| Capital expenditure | $65.9M | $54.3M | $32.3M | $27.7M | $28.5M |
| Total debt | $2.04B | $2.09B | $2.16B | $568M | $570M |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | FA | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +25.6% | +3.5% | 2nd highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +47.4% | +1.8% | 3rd highest of 20 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -6.4% | -40.8% | 4th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +32.9% | +23.5% | 7th highest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 10.9% | 5.7% | 9th highest of 20 |
| Forward P/E | 17.4× | 23.1× | 5th cheapest of 17 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 20.8% | 12.9% | 7th most demanding of 14 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +25.3% | +17.8% | 6th highest of 14 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -4.6 pp | -7.7 pp | 7th most demanding of 14 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -4.2 pp | -2.8 pp | 8th lowest of 17 |
| EV / EBITDA | 13.6× | 23.5× | 4th cheapest of 10 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 4.2× | -0.2× | 2nd most indebted of 12 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Advantage FA | United States | $4.04B | +47% | +33% | 11% | 17.4× | 20.8% | +25.3% |
| Momenta Global 6880.HK | Hong Kong | $4.02B | n/a | +82% | -32% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Kinaxis KXS.TO | Canada | $4.01B | +35% | +16% | 18% | 30.9× | 12.9% | +20.6% |
| Talkweb Information System 002261.SZ | China | $4.11B | -39% | +9% | 1% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| DLocal DLO | United States | $3.94B | +2% | +57% | 18% | 14.4× | 2.4% | +60.0% |
| Magnite MGNI | United States | $3.93B | +94% | +8% | 16% | 20.9× | 31.9% | +26.4% |
| Kingdee International Software 0268.HK | Hong Kong | $4.16B | +3% | +17% | 2% | 65.4× | 45.4% | +15.0% |
| OPENLANE OPLN | United States | $4.22B | -9% | +13% | 17% | 20.7× | 11.1% | -2.4% |
| China National Software & Service 600536.SS | China | $4.22B | -20% | -16% | 0% | 131.0× | 49.7% | -7.3% |
| Sportradar SRAD | United States | $4.22B | +4% | +25% | 13% | 30.2× | 11.3% | +25.8% |
| Life360 LIF | United States | $3.86B | +8% | +34% | 1% | 33.9× | n/a | n/a |
| Thunder Software Technology 300496.SZ | China | $3.83B | -13% | +40% | 6% | 40.0× | n/a | n/a |
| Sega Sammy 6460.T | Japan | $4.28B | +46% | +24% | 10% | 17.8× | -2.3% | +11.9% |
| Core Scientific CORZ | United States | $3.78B | -49% | +26% | -31% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Geovis Technology 688568.SS | China | $3.78B | -45% | -64% | -70% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| G-Bits Network Technology (Xiamen) 603444.SS | China | $3.77B | -14% | +35% | 40% | 12.5× | -0.9% | +17.7% |
| Koei Tecmo 3635.T | Japan | $3.74B | +15% | +19% | 43% | 15.1× | -5.7% | +7.9% |
| Glory View Technology 301396.SZ | China | $3.72B | -49% | +53% | n/a | 25.3× | n/a | n/a |
| HUB24 HUB.AX | Australia | $4.39B | -4% | +23% | 29% | 42.6× | 35.6% | +35.7% |
| monday.com MNDY | United States | $3.72B | +22% | +24% | 3% | 14.2× | 23.6% | +50.2% |
| Tenable TENB | United States | $4.40B | +93% | +10% | 5% | 17.8× | 30.1% | +17.8% |