Forensic Analysis · Software & SaaS · as of Nov 9, 2026
First Advantage Corp (FA)
A forensic read on First Advantage Corp built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-2.7%
ROE
83.0%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
First Advantage Corp earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.2, placing it in the Grey zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
3.0%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 3.0% in the latest fiscal year, against 4.7% in FY2023, having run between -2.0% and 4.7% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $63M in FY2023 and $105M in FY2025, with operating income at 10.7% of revenue in FY2023, -7.3% in FY2024 and 8.4% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +159% across FY2023–FY2025, from $1.3B to $3.4B, while the return fell 1.7 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 4.7% the older base was already earning. FY2025's operating profit carried a $27M restructuring charge that alone took about 0.6 points off that year's return, so about 0.6 of the 1.7-point fall across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge landing in the latest year rather than the capital earning less.
+8.8%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +18% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+8.8%/yr). The count is growing — 146.2M shares in FY2023, 173.2M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~8.8% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~16%.
1.6% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 1.6% of revenue and 17% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.14 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 8.8% a year across FY2023–FY2025 and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
stopped
FY2023→FY2025
Shareholder returns — halted.Capital returns have STOPPED — $59M of buybacks + dividends in FY2023, but ~$0 in FY2025. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.57B
Revenue Growth YoY+83.0%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+43.6%
Net Margin-2.2%
Free Cash Flow$140.9M
Return on Equity-2.7%
Debt / Equity1.58x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from First Advantage Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?