Stock Market News
WPP headwinds not seen relenting, Credit Suisse downgrades
WPP is facing flat revenue growth and margins in 2018, with a number of headwinds besides that led Credit Suisse to downgrade its rating on the stock to 'neutral' from 'outperform'.
Credit Suisse, which lowered its target price to 1,440p from 1,500p, said it had been wrong to give more weight to WPP's depressed valuation over its poor revenue momentum, even though it had remained cautious on the ad agency subsector.
Organic growth is seen as likely to remain under pressure with no relief seen in structural headwinds for ad agencies, with the Swiss bank predicting WPP will guide to flat revenue and margin in for 2018 while the average of analyst forecasts is for 1.3% sales and a 10 basis-point improvement in margins.
"We have not yet picked up evidence of broad-based FMCG recovery and see the disconnect between GDP, advertising and agency fees continuing," analysts wrote, also noting that the auto sector offers another contract risk this year, with Ford calling for a "marketing reset".
Credit Suisse, which lowered its target price to 1,440p from 1,500p, said it had been wrong to give more weight to WPP's depressed valuation over its poor revenue momentum, even though it had remained cautious on the ad agency subsector.
Organic growth is seen as likely to remain under pressure with no relief seen in structural headwinds for ad agencies, with the Swiss bank predicting WPP will guide to flat revenue and margin in for 2018 while the average of analyst forecasts is for 1.3% sales and a 10 basis-point improvement in margins.
"We have not yet picked up evidence of broad-based FMCG recovery and see the disconnect between GDP, advertising and agency fees continuing," analysts wrote, also noting that the auto sector offers another contract risk this year, with Ford calling for a "marketing reset".
Related share prices |
---|
Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.uk
Get a free widget for your website with our latest headlines.
You can now add our live prices and new headlines to your website.The news widget features quotes for Oil prices, spot Gold price and Indices plus a choice of news channel for healines.
Top Shares pages
- Share price quotes
- Share charts
- Share watch list
- Company Results Calendar
- Top Large UK Shares
- UK Market Sectors
- Stock market news
- Company news
- Share tips
- A-Z company search
More share features
POPULAR Share Prices
- Royal Mail share price
- Lloyds share price
- HSBC share price
- Barclays share price
- Prudential share price
- Santander share price
- NEXT share price
- Diageo share price
- BP share price
- Vodafone share price
- British Airways
- Centrica share price
- Tesco share price
- Taylor Wimpey Share Price
- National Grid
- GKP Share Price
- Marks and Spencer
- Rolls Royce
- Rio Tinto
- THG Share Price
- Aviva Share Price
- Boil Share price
- Easyjet Share Price
- Genedrive Share Price
- SSE Share Price
- IAG Share Price
- Boohoo share price
- HE1 share price
- AVCT share price
- BOOM share price