WPP posted its biggest one-day gain since its 1995 IPO on 6 August, while S4 Capital went even further. Havas brought up the rear with a gain of just over two percent.

Company	4 August	11 August	Change
WPP (GBp)	304.90	402.40	+32.0%
Publicis Groupe (EUR)	94.28	98.80	+4.8%
S4 Capital (GBp)	39.20	53.60	+36.7%
Dentsu Group (JPY)	3,472	3,774	+8.7%
Omnicom Group (USD)	81.81	85.95	+5.1%
Havas (EUR)	18.70	19.10	+2.1%

WPP

WPP gained almost 32 percent over the week, setting the tone for the entire sector. The stock closed 25 percent higher at 383.6 pence on Thursday, 6 August, after rising as much as 30 percent intraday. Techtimes described it as the company's biggest one-day gain since its 1995 IPO. The catalyst was its half-year results, which beat expectations on almost every measure.

Revenue less pass-through costs came in at £4.75 billion, down 4.7 percent on a like-for-like basis, compared with the market expectation of around 6.5 percent. More important was the pace of decline: the second quarter was down 2.8 percent, compared with 6.7 percent in the first quarter. Headline operating profit reached £398 million, versus consensus of £347 million, with a margin of 8.4 percent, 20 basis points higher than a year earlier. The interim dividend remains unchanged at 7.5 pence.

CEO Cindy Rose said the first phase of the Elevate28 recovery plan is on track. The plan has three stages: stabilise in 2026, build in 2027 and accelerate in 2028. Of the targeted £500 million in annualised savings by 2028, £100 million has already been achieved this year. Headcount fell from 106,000 to 97,000, while 15 non-core businesses were sold, generating more than £200 million in proceeds this year. Net debt declined to £2.9 billion, with leverage at 2.18 times EBITDA. For the full year, WPP is targeting a headline operating margin of 12 to 13 percent, with a return to growth expected in 2027.

The strategic core is WPP Open, the agentic marketing platform on which the group is building its AI offering. A new addition is Open Intelligence, based on InfoSum's federated clean-room architecture. As of 1 July, Enterprise Solutions was consolidated into a single unit with £1.8 billion in revenue and around 10,000 specialists; WPP Media now accounts for 46 percent of revenue. Rose said: "AI represents a growth opportunity for us."

Not everything was positive. Client losses remained at the upper end of the 500-to-600 basis-point range, and during the week WPP lost Novo Nordisk's US media mandate to Omnicom. Analysts responded cautiously positively: JPMorgan raised its price target to 390 pence with a neutral rating, while Berenberg reiterated its buy rating with a target of 405 pence. Notably, the average price target of around 340 pence is now below the current share price following the surge.

S4 Capital

S4 Capital was the strongest performer of the week, rising almost 37 percent. The group brought forward the publication of its half-year results by six days to 5 August, and the move paid off.

Net revenue fell 4.7 percent like-for-like to £308 million. Operating EBITDA, however, jumped almost 83 percent to £38 million. The margin reached 12.3 percent, 600 basis points higher than a year earlier. Staff costs fell from 79.2 to 72.2 percent of net revenue, while headcount declined 11 percent to approximately 6,150 employees. Net debt more than halved to £66.3 million, reducing leverage from 2.0 to 0.7 times EBITDA, well below its own target.

For the first time since its formation, S4 Capital is paying an interim dividend of 1.35 pence per share, half of adjusted earnings per share of 2.7 pence. The ex-dividend date is 7 September, with payment on 6 October.

The revenue outlook was nevertheless downgraded, from a low-single-digit decline to a mid-single-digit decline, with operating EBITDA expected to reach £85 million. Executive chairman Sir Martin Sorrell pointed to continued client caution caused by macroeconomic uncertainty and hyperscalers shifting budgets from marketing to AI infrastructure.

On synthetic content, he said: "Whilst the industry and our clients indeed agonise over every pixel, I'm not sure that consumers do." Wesley ter Haar highlighted the speed of agents: "The whole workflow from opportunity spotting to working on strategy and creative then getting to an asset can be done anywhere between 15 minutes and an hour."

Dentsu Group

Dentsu gained almost nine percent following its 5 August results for the April-to-June quarter. Gross profit rose 2.7 percent to ¥295.1 billion, while adjusted operating profit increased 11.5 percent to ¥37.8 billion. The margin improved by 100 basis points to 12.8 percent.

Net profit of ¥40.2 billion was distorted by an approximately ¥30 billion gain on the sale of the Dentsu Ginza Building. Organic growth was 0.8 percent, with significant regional differences: Japan grew 4.7 percent for the sixth consecutive quarter, EMEA increased 0.8 percent, the Americas declined 3.0 percent and Asia-Pacific fell 7.5 percent.

Dentsu is reducing its number of EMEA clusters from seven to three and is selling its CRM operations in Australia and New Zealand, with completion expected in the third quarter. Its full-year forecast of 2 to 3 percent organic growth remains unchanged. CEO Sano said: "Clients are choosing us based on the quality of the team proposing."

Omnicom Group

Omnicom gained more than five percent, largely recovering the previous week's losses. The biggest news came from the client side: the group won Novo Nordisk's US media mandate, covering the manufacturer of Ozempic and Wegovy. Wavemaker had handled the account since 2020 for WPP.

Estimates of the account's value vary. Based on COMvergence data, Adweek puts the value at $520 million in the US and $618 million globally, while MediaPost and Exchange4media report more than $600 million a year in the US alone. The mandate begins in the fourth quarter.

It was also announced that Omnicom repurchased $2.77 billion of its own shares in the second quarter, equivalent to almost 34.9 million shares. At Omnicom Public Relations, Marina Maher Communications launched the WEATHERVaiNE AI methodology, built on Bluefish AI, designed to identify cultural signals before they become mainstream.

At the Beet Retreat Berkshires, Joanna O'Connell, Omnicom Media's chief intelligence officer, expressed reservations about the industry's enthusiasm for AI. Her research found that only 16 percent of consumers have no objection to a fully AI-generated advertisement, while around 80 percent believed that at least a quarter of the ads they saw were AI-generated.

"People are much more interested in humans being in the loop and guiding the use of the AI."

Analyst consensus on the stock remains positive, with an average price target of $103 based on 15 analysts.

Publicis Groupe

Publicis gained almost five percent, reaching a 12-month high. On 5 August, the stock was the CAC 40's strongest performer, rising 3.05 percent, while the index itself closed at a record high.

Attention now turns to 17 August, when LiveRamp shareholders will vote on Publicis' acquisition of the company for $38.50 per share in cash, in a transaction valued at approximately $2.5 billion.

On 5 August, LiveRamp reported first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue of $214 million, up 10 percent year on year, with a non-GAAP operating margin of 24 percent. The company provided no guidance and held no analyst call because of the pending merger.

On 10 August, LiveRamp filed an 8-K containing additional information on the deal, following shareholder letters regarding its previous disclosures. This included Evercore's valuation analysis, which put the implied value at between $33.83 and $49.38 per share. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the calendar year.

Havas

Havas closed the week more than two percent higher at €19.10. The group continued its share buyback programme, purchasing 4,887 shares between 3 and 7 August at an average price of €19.03.

Since the launch of the €50 million programme on 13 May, Havas has bought back 67,703 shares. Havas publishes an update on the programme's progress every Monday.

Marketing Report Markets is an editorial analysis of share price developments in the marcom sector and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell securities.

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