First Advantage Corporation (NASDAQ: FA), a global software and data company, today announced financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2026.

Key Financials
(Amounts in millions, except per share data and percentages)

_{¹ Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin, Adjusted Net Income, and Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share are non-GAAP measures. Please see the end of this earnings release for definitions and schedules with reconciliations of these measures to their most directly comparable respective GAAP measures.
Note: "NA" indicates not applicable information; "NM" indicates not meaningful information.}

“We delivered another quarter of outstanding performance, highlighted by nearly 14% revenue growth, increasing margins, strong cash flow, and robust earnings per share growth. Our results reflected sustained positive momentum across our revenue growth algorithm, with continued excellent base growth, solid new logo contribution, successful upsell and cross-sell activity, and consistently high retention. We continue to see broad-based growth across our diverse, balanced verticals, with strong performance from nearly every vertical in our Americas business. Our AI-enabled products continue to be key differentiators as we help our customers mitigate human capital risks and prevent fraud. Our go-to-market momentum and pipeline remain strong as we approach 2027,” said Scott Staples, Chief Executive Officer.

“On October 31, we celebrated the two-year anniversary of closing the Sterling acquisition. We are executing well and realizing benefits far exceeding our original expectations. Today, we are a larger, stronger, and more diversified company, offering customers a broader portfolio of best-of-breed technologies and products backed by greater scale and innovation capabilities. As a result, we have strengthened our market position, expanded our growth opportunities, and enhanced our ability to create long-term value for shareholders,” Staples added.

Acquisition of Data Diver Technologies

“In addition, today we are excited to announce our acquisition of Data Diver Technologies, a data platform leveraging AI and automation that collects, aggregates, retains, and delivers high-volume criminal and court records, further supporting our strategy of delivering fast, accurate, and automated screening results for our customers. This acquisition aligns squarely with our focus on investing in data and technology assets to help our customers make decisions faster and mitigate risk, while enhancing our proprietary data and automation capabilities and creating new opportunities to expand our solutions and drive product innovation. This acquisition represents another important step in advancing our FA 5.0 growth strategy,” Staples concluded.

The related press release is available on First Advantage’s investor relations website. 

Raising Full Year 2026 Guidance

“This quarter, we continued to progress on our synergy program for the Sterling acquisition and expect to finish the year near or at the top end of our run rate synergy target range, underscoring the ongoing success of our integration efforts. Looking forward, our focus is on driving continued operational efficiencies, supporting product innovation, and translating the benefits of the combination into sustained growth, margin expansion, and cash flow generation. While deleveraging remains a high priority for capital allocation, as evidenced by our $45 million debt prepayment during the quarter, our consistent cash flow provides us flexibility for disciplined, strategic capital deployment, including the Data Diver Technologies acquisition, to complement our organic growth objectives and drive incremental shareholder returns,” said Steven Marks, Chief Financial Officer. “We remain confident in our ability to deliver consistent profitable growth. Based on our strong performance through the first three quarters of the year and our expectations for the fourth quarter, we are raising our guidance ranges for the full year, with the low end of our updated guidance ranges now exceeding the high end of our prior guidance ranges across every metric.”

The following table summarizes our updated full year 2026 guidance.

_{² A reconciliation of the foregoing guidance for the non-GAAP metrics of Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income to GAAP net income and Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share to GAAP diluted net income per share cannot be provided without unreasonable effort because of the inherent difficulty of accurately forecasting the occurrence and financial impact of the various adjusting items necessary for such reconciliation that have not yet occurred, are out of our control, or cannot be reasonably predicted. For the same reasons, the Company is unable to assess the probable significance of the unavailable information, which could have a material impact on its future GAAP financial results.}

Actual results may differ materially from First Advantage’s full year 2026 guidance as a result of, among other things, the factors described under “Forward-Looking Statements” below.

Conference Call and Webcast Information

First Advantage will host a conference call to review its third quarter 2026 results today, November 5, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. ET.

To participate in the conference call, please dial 800-579-2543 (domestic) or 785-424-1789 (international) approximately ten minutes before the 8:30 a.m. ET start. Please mention to the operator that you are dialing in for the First Advantage third quarter 2026 earnings call or provide the conference code FA3Q26. The call will also be webcast live on the Company’s investor relations website at https://investors.fadv.com under the “News & Events” and then “Events & Presentations” section, where related presentation materials will be posted prior to the conference call.

Following the conference call, a replay of the webcast will be available on the Company’s investor relations website, https://investors.fadv.com. Alternatively, the live webcast and subsequent replay will be available at https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/5508610/155836F5FA3B3D924EF9669941EDE522.