Advantage Solutions (NASDAQ:ADV) Trading Up 5.1%

Advantage Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ:ADV) shot up 5.1% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $4.35 and last traded at $4.34. 573,030 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 7% from the average session volume of 615,021 shares. The stock had previously closed at $4.13.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, TheStreet upgraded shares of Advantage Solutions from a “d” rating to a “c-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $3.43.

Advantage Solutions Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68. The company has a market cap of $1.35 billion, a P/E ratio of -21.10 and a beta of 1.59. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $4.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $3.44.

Advantage Solutions (NASDAQ:ADV) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. Advantage Solutions had a negative net margin of 1.35% and a negative return on equity of 4.51%. On average, equities analysts expect that Advantage Solutions Inc. will post 0.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Advantage Solutions

In other news, COO Jack Anthony Pestello purchased 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $3.87 per share, for a total transaction of $38,700.00. Following the purchase, the chief operating officer now owns 146,279 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $566,099.73. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 5.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Advantage Solutions in the fourth quarter worth $55,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Advantage Solutions by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,272,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,947,000 after acquiring an additional 44,116 shares during the period. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in Advantage Solutions by 219.8% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 138,373 shares of the company’s stock valued at $501,000 after acquiring an additional 95,111 shares during the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Advantage Solutions in the 4th quarter worth approximately $453,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Advantage Solutions by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 469,797 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,683,000 after buying an additional 44,112 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.82% of the company’s stock.

About Advantage Solutions

Advantage Solutions Inc provides business solutions to consumer goods manufacturers and retailers in North America and internationally. It operates in two segments, Sales and Marketing. The Sales segment offers brand-centric services, such as headquarter relationship management; analytics, insights, and intelligence; and brand-centric merchandising services.