Reviewing TeleTech (NASDAQ:TTEC) and First Advantage (NYSE:FA)

First Advantage (NYSE:FA) and TeleTech (NASDAQ:TTEC) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for First Advantage and TeleTech, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
First Advantage	0	3	3	0	2.50
TeleTech	2	1	0	0	1.33

First Advantage presently has a consensus price target of $23.33, suggesting a potential upside of 22.55%. Given First Advantage’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe First Advantage is more favorable than TeleTech.

Risk and Volatility

First Advantage has a beta of 1.12, suggesting that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TeleTech has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

94.9% of First Advantage shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 38.0% of TeleTech shares are held by institutional investors. 4.4% of First Advantage shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 59.4% of TeleTech shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares First Advantage and TeleTech’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
First Advantage	0.65%	13.16%	7.33%
TeleTech	-10.23%	16.25%	1.60%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares First Advantage and TeleTech”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
First Advantage	$1.66 billion	1.97	$37.29 million	$0.14	136.00
TeleTech	$2.04 billion	0.04	-$192.47 million	($4.30)	-0.37

First Advantage has higher earnings, but lower revenue than TeleTech. TeleTech is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than First Advantage, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

First Advantage beats TeleTech on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. The company also provides post-onboarding solutions, including criminal records monitoring, healthcare sanctions, motor vehicle records, social media screening, and global sanctions and licenses; and other products comprising fleet/vehicle compliance, hiring tax credits and incentives, resident/tenant screening, and investigative research. Its products and solutions are used by personnel in recruiting, human resources, risk, compliance, vendor management, safety, and/or security in global enterprises, mid-sized, and small companies. The company was formerly known as Fastball Intermediate, Inc. and changed its name to First Advantage Corporation in March 2021. First Advantage Corporation was founded in 2002 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia.

About TeleTech

TTEC Holdings, Inc. operates as a customer experience (CX) company that designs, builds, and operates technology-enabled customer experiences across digital and live interaction channels. It operates through two segments, TTEC Digital and TTEC Engage. The TTEC Digital segment provides CX technologies for contact center as a service, customer relationship management, and artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics; creates and implements strategic CX transformation roadmaps; sells, operates, and provides managed services for cloud platforms and premise based CX technologies; creates proprietary IP to support industry specific and custom client needs; and offers CX consulting services. The TTEC Engage segment provides digitally enabled CX operational and managed services; delivers data-driven omnichannel customer care, customer acquisition, growth and retention services, tech support, trust and safety, and back-office solutions; and offers solutions for AI operations, including data annotation and labeling. It serves clients in the healthcare, automotive, government, financial services, communication, technology, travel, logistics, media and entertainment, e-tail/retail, and transportation industries with operations in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Poland, South Africa, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. The company was formerly known as TeleTech Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to TTEC Holdings, Inc. in January 2018. TTEC Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado.