Quarterly sales slide at WPP, full-year outlook unchanged
By Abigail Townsend
Date: Friday 25 Apr 2025
(Sharecast News) - WPP reiterated its full-year outlook on Friday, despite seeing quarterly sales slide amid mounting macroeconomic uncertainty.
Reported revenues at the advertising and communications giant fell 5% in the three months to March end, to £3.24bn, or by 0.7% on a like-for-like basis.
Revenues less pass-through costs were down 2.7% on an underlying basis, at £2.48bn. Within that, all regions saw declines, including a 4.5% slide in western continental Europe and a 5.5% fall in the UK.
However, in North America - WPP's biggest market - revenues eased just 0.1%, at £992m.
Mark Read, chief executive, said: "Our financial performance in the first quarter was in line with our expectations, reflecting macroeconomic challenges and the timing of a new business. We expect these factors to continue in the second quarter, with performance anticipated to improve in the second half."
WPP expects full-year like-for-like revenues less pass-through costs to come in between -2% and 0.0%.
However, Read acknowledged that the Donald Trump's swingeing tariff regime - which came into effect after the period end - could impact client spending going forward.
He said: "While WPP is not itself directly affected by tariffs, they will impact a number of our clients as well as the broader economy.
"At this point we have not seen any significant change in client spending, and we reiterate our full-year guidance, which already reflected a challenging environment."
Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "In a fiercely competitive advertising area, WPP is struggling to spark fresh ideas that could kickstart its return to growth.
"With this weakness set to continue into the second quarter, WPP's leaving itself a lot of work to do late in the year, and there could be room for disappointment as the year progresses."
As at 0845 BST, shares in the blue chip were up 2% at 570.23p. The stock has lost 31% in 2025 to date.
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