WPP: shares under attack, results and forecasts disappoint

(CercleFinance.com) - WPP shares came under heavy attack on Thursday morning on the London Stock Exchange, after the company reported quarterly results below expectations and a disappointing outlook.


The British advertising group's shares are currently down over 16%, by far the biggest fall on the FTSE 100, which is up 0.1% at the same time.

This morning, the communications giant reported a 2.3% decline in sales on a like-for-like basis, net of passed-on costs, for the 4th quarter.

The consensus was for organic growth of around 0.1%.

Although it claims to have recently won accounts from leading groups such as Amazon, J&J, Kimberly-Clark and Unilever, WPP refers in a press release to 'lower discretionary spending by its clients'.

For its 2025 financial year, the group says it expects organic sales decline of between 0% and 2%, with an improvement in performance expected in the second half of the year.

We believe that the earnings consensus will be revised downwards by around 5% as a result of these somewhat weak forecasts and the increase in its tax rate", commented UBS analysts.

"The fact that business is expected to be mainly concentrated in the second half of the year should also be received unfavorably", emphasized the research department.

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