Shares in WPP rose more than 25% on Thursday, the advertising group's sharpest single-day gain since it listed in 1995, after first-half results landed well ahead of what analysts had braced for.
The London-listed owner of Ogilvy and Grey reported headline operating profit of £398 million for the six months to 30 June. That was more than 13% above the roughly £347 million analysts had forecast, according to consensus figures compiled by Bloomberg, even though the figure was down 3.4% on the same period last year.
Revenue decline slowed sharply in the second quarter
The more consequential number for investors was the trajectory. Like-for-like revenue excluding pass-through costs fell 4.7% across the half, against expectations of a decline closer to 6.5%. Within that, the second-quarter drop narrowed to 2.8% from 6.7% in the first quarter.
Revenue less pass-through costs came in at £4,745 million, down from £5,026 million a year earlier. Headline operating margin edged up to 8.4% from 8.2%. Among the group's 25 largest clients, like-for-like revenue fell 6.3% over the half but improved to a 3.2% decline in the second quarter.
A low bar, cleared
The scale of the market reaction says as much about expectations as about the results. WPP shares had lost roughly two-thirds of their value over the preceding year, touching a 27-year low. The stock opened at 344p against Wednesday's close of 307.1p, reached an intraday high of 400p — its strongest level since September 2025 — and settled around 383.6p.
Chief executive Cindy Rose said she was "encouraged by our first-half performance which is in line with our expectations", while noting that losses on legacy accounts continue to weigh on the top line.
Turnaround plan and new business
The results are the first clear financial evidence that Rose's Elevate28 programme — which targets £500 million of annualised cost savings by 2028 — is delivering rather than merely slowing the decline. New mandates won during the half included Estée Lauder, Wendy's, Skechers, Tesco, Huawei and Uber.
WPP held its interim dividend at 7.5p a share and said it intends to keep the full-year payout at 15.0p. Guidance was unchanged: like-for-like revenue excluding pass-through costs is still expected to fall by low-to-mid single digits in the second half, with a full-year headline operating margin of 12% to 13%.
