From Cazenova just now .... DYOR .... but quick :)

WPP - upgrade to OUTPERFORM - interims due 26 Aug which we expect to be strong, reflecting gd Q2 fig's already reported by peers. We see potential for EPS upgrades of up to 5%-10% N/T (combination of top line, margin & US$). L/T we expect EPS growth of up to 17%-18% pa before maturing at 11%-12% pa. Key risks are (1) further M&A (2) prem valuation (17.1x 06 EPS before any upgrade), representing a 31% prem to UK mkt & 33% to UK media sector. Despite this we still believe it has room to outperform. Our DCF valuation gives 760p, 28% upside from here.

Well done cynic.

WPP PLC ("WPP")

Kantar to acquire majority stake in Oasis Insights, an independent market research business in Pakistan


WPP announces that it has agreed to acquire, through the Kantar network, a majority stake in Oasis Insights (Private) Limited ("Oasis"), an insight and consultancy business based in Karachi, subject to regulatory approvals.

Founded in 1996 by Mr Moazzam Al Qadri, Oasis offers insight and consultancy services to clients across all business sectors. Oasis employs 105 people and clients include Engro Foods, Mobilink, PTC, Ufone and Unilever.

Oasis' revenues for the year ended 30 June 2011 were approximately PKR 254 million, with gross assets at the same date of approximately PKR 109 million.

This investment continues WPP's strategy of developing its services in fast-growing and important markets and sectors. Pakistan is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world, identified by Goldman Sachs as one of the Next 11 economies to watch. WPP businesses (including associates) in the Next 11 markets generate revenues of more than US $700million and employ more than 9000 people.

StockMarketWire.com
Marketing giant WPP Group said today Burson-Marsteller, its wholly-owned PR firm, has agreed to acquire a majority equity stake in Viestintätoimisto Pohjoisranta in Finland.

Pohjoisranta, based in Helsinki, has a team of more than 40 professionals and is one of Finland's largest communications agencies.

Pohjoisranta has been Burson-Marsteller's exclusive affiliate partner in Finland since 2006 and now joins the network as Pohjoisranta Burson-Marsteller. The company's clients include HP, Metso, SAP and Stora Enso.

Pohjoisranta's unaudited revenues for the year ended 31 December 2011 were approximately €5.1m, with gross assets as at the same date of approximately €1.8m.

This acquisition continues WPP's strategy of investing in important markets and sectors. WPP businesses in Scandinavia, including associates, generate revenues of over $500m and employ nearly 3000 people.

and it's an olympic year too ..... this has to be a sensible component of a balanced portfolio (ramp ramp!)

Note from Liberum:
WPP FY11 results showed a significant beat on margin guidance, as well as a beat on organic revenue growth, again highlighting the resilience of the business and the potential for margin progression. We will review our top end of the range consensus numbers (we have 78.6p adjusted EPS for FY12E PE) postpresentation but expect consensus to rise by 5% – 10%. Reiterate Buy, DCF-based fair value is 1000p.

A very good set of numbers: Adjusted EPS was 67.7p, in line with our 67.8p estimate but ahead of consensus at 65.6p. Organic revenue growth was 5.3% ahead of 5% guidance and 5.1% Liberum estimates and driven by the faster growing markets, which showed 10.5% like for like growth. The real positive surprise was on the margin, up 110bps to 14.3% ahead of Liberum’s 14% and guidance of 13.9% or more. It was particularly boosted by Western Continental Europe (up 180bps yoy) and the faster growing markets (up 90bps, and now at 15.4% margin, close to North America’s 15.5% level).

North American organic revenue growth – confident despite Q4. A few reasons why we are not concerned: (1) suspect this is a specific issue with their market research unit, which the company has already identified and said it is taking steps to rectify. This would explain why WPP’s US Q4 performance looks weaker than others (other agency groups do not have this) (2) the US in general is still showing good advertising growth (3) It is obviously not impacting group margin or revenue progression (US was up 80bps yoy for margin).

WPP upped the dividend by 38% yoy, far higher than expected, to 24.6p vs. Liberum 20.5p estimate and 21p consensus. WPP is now accelerating its target of moving the dividend to 40% of fully diluted earnings (33% in FY11E).

Revised forecasts. For FY12E, guiding to 4% organic revenue growth (we have 4.6%) and 14.8% margin (as we have), a 50bps yoy improvement, but this has to be seen as conservative given 2011′s big beat (we had forecasted a 80bps yoy margin improvement in 2012E). We will revise forecasts post presentation. Our 2012E adjusted EPS forecast of 78.6p adjusted EPS was 10% ahead of pre-results consensus.
Valuation. Our current DCF-based price target is 1000p. The shares trade at 10.4x FY12E PE, which looks very attractive given the margin beat and potential for further earnings expansion.

confess i banked a good profit here about a week ago - but bought back in this morning, and that too is now in the money

hands up all you naughties who haven't followed sir's advice on this one and go and stand in the corner facing the wall for 15 minutes while you contemplate your sins

Jefferies has upgraded its rating for the stock from 'hold' to 'buy'.

The broker said that an analysis of WPP's largest clients and their 2013 ad budgets "looks encouraging" and "with expectations low, we see upside risk".

long time since this one has been highlighted, but figures due this week - prob excellent - and sp just touching 50 dma so possible bounce anyway

a nice little run since i mentioned this company a few days ago :-)

perhaps i'm re-finding my touch, though i did indeed get the date for the figures a week early

sp is now into new all-time high ground with momentum, so perhaps more fizz to come if the level can be held

since i last posted, i have sold at a decent profit and just bought back in again, albeit at a higher level

i think that this - or the sector at least - should be in all serious investors' portfolios at a time where economies are once again on the rise

Looks like it could pull back to the shorter term MA(mean reversion) but yes does look interesting Cyners. On my red hot watch list........cheers bud.

no doubt the market will think otherwise, but results out to day look pretty good to me

Liberum note:
WPP has cut its annual operating margin improvement guidance from 50bps to 30bps. This is disappointing, especially given the back office centralisation taking place (and the continued high growth of higher margin media buying, est. c. 20% of group revenues should also have pulled up margins). It has kept its annual diluted EPS growth target of 10-15% pa, but there will now be a greater emphasis on share buybacks (2%-3% pa vs. 1% previously). They continue to increase the dividend pay-out target to 45% In 2014 (from 42% in 2013)
WPP is guiding to like for like revenues over 3% and an operating margin improvement of 30bps yoy (we had 4.4% organic revenue growth and a 40bps margin improvement, but our forecasts are now under review). However, January has started well, with like for like revenue growth of 5.7%.
We cut the recommendation to Hold and put forecasts under review. We like the agency space and we continue to think that WPP is the best positioned agency group in terms of its assets and geographical exposure (c. 30%+ from the faster growing markets). We also think its digital strategy is the right one. However, given the surprise cut to the operating improvement guidance, we believe the shares will lack momentum, despite the strong start to 2014."

well i topped up a bit this morning at 1361

I hope not! :-)

oh alright - 1261 then :-)

looks a smart move with hindsight - currently 1311 :-))

StockMarketWire.com
WPP has booked an H1 pretax profit of £491m, from £427m a year earlier. Revenue was £5.5bn, from £5.3bn. It proposed a dividend of 11.62p a share, from 10.56p.

"All in all, however, on a reportable basis, 2014 looks likely to be another demanding year, as a strong United Kingdom pound and weak faster growth market currencies continue to take their toll on our reported results," the company said in a statement.

"But, if budgets and quarter two revised forecasts are met, 2014 will be another strong year, as the first half results demonstrate. Current nominal worldwide GDP forecasts for 2015 indicate a similar growth rate at around 5.4%. This suggests that 2015 should be another good year for our industry, despite the absence of any mini- or maxi-quadrennial events," it said.

Separately, the company announced two acquisitions.

WPP's wholly-owned operating company GroupM, WPP's global media investment management arm, has agreed to acquire Keyade, a leading digital search marketing agency in France.

WPP added that its wholly-owned operating company, Millward Brown, a global leader in brand, media and communications research, has acquired InsightExpress, Inc., a provider of media analytics and marketing accountability solutions in the United States. InsightExpress will be combined with Millward Brown Digital, the company's US-based digital unit.

Meantime, highlights of the H1 results were:

- Constant currency revenues up 11.3%, like-for-like revenues up 8.7%

- Constant currency net sales up 6.4%, like-for-like net sales up 4.1%

- Reported billings down 3.0% at £22.060 billion ravaged by sterling strength, but up 5.7% in constant currency

- Reported net sales margin of 13.0%, flat with last year, up 0.3 margin points on a constant currency basis and up 0.3 margin points like-for-like in line with the full year margin target

- Headline reported profit before interest and tax £622 million, down 2.4%, but up 9.0% in constant currency

- Headline profit before tax £532 million up 1.5%, up 15.6% in constant currency

- Profit before tax £491 million up 15.0%, up 33.7% in constant currency

- Reported profit after tax £396 million up 25.6%, up 47.9% in constant currency

- Headline diluted earnings per share 29.2p up 2.8%, up 17.1% in constant currency

- Reported diluted earnings per share 27.0p up 25.6%, up 47.7% in constant currency

- Dividends per share 11.62p up 10%, a pay-out ratio of 40% versus 37% last year

- Share buy-backs upped significantly in line with target to £390 million in the first half, up from £133 million last year, equivalent to 2.3% of the issued share capital against 1.0% last year

- Targeted dividend pay-out ratio of 45% likely to be achieved this year well ahead of schedule

- Including all associates and investments, revenues total over $24 billion annually and people average over 179,000

StockMarketWire.com
WPP has announced that its wholly-owned operating company JWT, the global marketing communications agency, has acquired a majority stake of Cairos Usabilidade Eireli ("Try"), a user experience agency in Brazil that designs and develops custom web, mobile, desktop and touch-enabled applications.

Try provides consultancy to their clients in user experience, interaction design and prototyping.

This investment continues WPP's strategy of investing in fast growing markets and sectors and its commitment to developing its strategic networks throughout the dynamic Brazilian market.

It also fits with WPP's strategy of investing in fast-growing markets and sectors such as data and digital. WPP's digital revenues (including associates) were well over $6bn in 2013, approximately 35% of the Group's total revenues of $17.3bn.

It has set a target of 40-45% of revenue to be derived from digital in the next five years.