Advantage Solutions Inc.'s (NASDAQ:ADV) 26% Dip In Price Shows Sentiment Is Matching Revenues

Advantage Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ:ADV) shareholders won't be pleased to see that the share price has had a very rough month, dropping 26% and undoing the prior period's positive performance. The recent drop completes a disastrous twelve months for shareholders, who are sitting on a 56% loss during that time.

Since its price has dipped substantially, Advantage Solutions' price-to-sales (or "P/S") ratio of 0.1x might make it look like a buy right now compared to the Media industry in the United States, where around half of the companies have P/S ratios above 1x and even P/S above 4x are quite common. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the reduced P/S.

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View our latest analysis for Advantage Solutions

How Has Advantage Solutions Performed Recently?

Advantage Solutions could be doing better as its revenue has been going backwards lately while most other companies have been seeing positive revenue growth. It seems that many are expecting the poor revenue performance to persist, which has repressed the P/S ratio. If this is the case, then existing shareholders will probably struggle to get excited about the future direction of the share price.

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Do Revenue Forecasts Match The Low P/S Ratio?

There's an inherent assumption that a company should underperform the industry for P/S ratios like Advantage Solutions' to be considered reasonable.

Taking a look back first, the company's revenue growth last year wasn't something to get excited about as it posted a disappointing decline of 5.9%. This means it has also seen a slide in revenue over the longer-term as revenue is down 8.6% in total over the last three years. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing revenue over that time.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the three analysts covering the company suggest revenue should grow by 0.7% each year over the next three years. Meanwhile, the rest of the industry is forecast to expand by 3.0% per annum, which is noticeably more attractive.

With this information, we can see why Advantage Solutions is trading at a P/S lower than the industry. It seems most investors are expecting to see limited future growth and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

The Bottom Line On Advantage Solutions' P/S

Advantage Solutions' P/S has taken a dip along with its share price. Generally, our preference is to limit the use of the price-to-sales ratio to establishing what the market thinks about the overall health of a company.

As we suspected, our examination of Advantage Solutions' analyst forecasts revealed that its inferior revenue outlook is contributing to its low P/S. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in revenue isn't great enough to justify a higher P/S ratio. The company will need a change of fortune to justify the P/S rising higher in the future.

There are also other vital risk factors to consider before investing and we've discovered 2 warning signs for Advantage Solutions that you should be aware of.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.