British advertising major WPP plc (WPP,WPP.L) on Thursday reported sharply lower profit in its first half, with weak revenues. Further, the company trimmed its interim dividend, and maintained fiscal 2025 outlook.
On the LSE, WPP shares were losing around 4.8 percent to trade at 382.63 pence.
In the first half, the company's profit before taxation plunged 71 percent to 98 million pounds from last year's 338 million pounds. Earnings per share declined 78.7 percent to 4.0 pence from 18.8 pence a year ago.
Headline pre-tax profit was 300 million pounds, compared to 525 million pounds a year earlier. Headline earnings per share were 20.0 pence, compared to 30.9 pence last year.
Revenue for the period declined 7.8 percent to 6.66 billion pounds from 7.23 billion pounds in the previous year. Revenue was down 2.4 percent on a like-for-like basis.
Revenue less pass-through costs of 5.03 billion pounds was down 10.2 percent on a reported basis and down 4.3 on like-for-like basis.
In the second quarter, revenue less pass-through costs was 2.54 billion pounds, down 12.6 percent on a reported basis and 5.8 percent LFL.
Further, the Board has declared an interim dividend of 7.5 pence, lower than prior year's 15 pence per share. The record date for the interim dividend is October 10, and the dividend will be payable on November 3.
Looking ahead, for fiscal 2025, the company continues to expect headline operating profit margin to be down 50 to 175 basis points from last year, and like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs to decline by 3 percent to 5 percent year-over-year.
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