Background screening provider First Advantage (NASDAQ: FA) will be reporting earnings this Thursday before market hours. Here’s what investors should know.

First Advantage beat analysts’ revenue expectations last quarter, reporting revenues of $409.2 million, up 105% year on year. It was a strong quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts’ full-year EPS guidance estimates and a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates.

Is First Advantage a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.

This quarter, the market is expecting First Advantage’s revenue to grow 27.4% year on year, slowing from the 51.6% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year.

Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. First Advantage has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates multiple times over the last two years.

Looking at First Advantage’s peers in the professional staffing & hr solutions segment, some have already reported their Q4 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Robert Half’s revenues decreased 5.8% year on year, beating analysts’ expectations by 1.1%, and Kforce reported a revenue decline of 3.4%, topping estimates by 0.8%. Robert Half traded up 27.8% following the results while Kforce was down 3.8%.

Read our full analysis of Robert Half’s results here and Kforce’s results here.

The outlook for 2025 remains clouded by potential trade policy changes and corporate tax discussions, which could impact business confidence and growth. While some of the professional staffing & hr solutions stocks have shown solid performance in this choppy environment, the group has generally underperformed, with share prices down 8.3% on average over the last month. First Advantage is down 35.7% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $17.57 (compared to the current share price of $9.08).

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