WPP revenue rises 0.5% in third quarter despite decline excluding pass-through costs
Key Facts
WPP reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of £3.274 billion, up 0.5% on a reported and like-for-like basis, while revenue excluding pass-through costs fell 2.1% like-for-like to £2.411 billion. In its trading update, the group said the quarter's performance was "in line with our expectations" and reaffirmed its full-year guidance without raising it. The divergence between growth in reported revenue and a decline in underlying revenue was central to the group's performance during the period. The disclosure did not provide a measure of the share price's movement during the announcement session or of investors' reaction, so the update cannot be linked to a specific daily move. For the year to the end of September, both revenue and underlying revenue remained below the levels of the comparable period.
In the first nine months of the year, WPP recorded revenue of £9.647 billion, down 2.8% on a reported basis and 1.9% like-for-like. Revenue excluding pass-through costs was £7.156 billion, down 4.4% on a reported basis and 3.9% like-for-like. These figures show that the year-to-date decline in underlying revenue remained deeper than the fall in the third quarter alone. In the first half, revenue excluding pass-through costs fell 4.7% like-for-like, while underlying operating profit declined 2.7% like-for-like. In its 2025 results, revenue excluding pass-through costs fell 5.4% like-for-like, while the underlying operating margin was 13.0%, compared with 15.0% in 2024.
Performance varied across units in the third quarter: WPP Media's revenue excluding pass-through costs grew 0.3% like-for-like, WPP Production revenue rose 2.5%, while WPP Creative declined 5.1%. The decline in revenue excluding pass-through costs at the integrated agencies also narrowed to 2.1% like-for-like, compared with declines of 2.8% in the second quarter and 5.9% in the third quarter of 2025. This marks sequential improvement in that part of the business, alongside a return to growth at the media unit. Weakness nevertheless remained broad geographically, with revenue excluding pass-through costs down 1.8% in North America and 1.7% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Asia-Pacific recorded the steepest regional decline, at 4.3%, while Latin America fell 1.2%; all figures are like-for-like.
Among its 25 largest clients, revenue excluding pass-through costs fell 2.7% like-for-like in the third quarter, compared with a 3.2% decline in the second quarter, which the company described as an improvement in the trajectory. WPP attributed the quarter's performance to client account losses from the previous year. It said, however, that it had renewed its global media partnership with Coca-Cola and won assignments or retentions from DoorDash, Nestlé, Uber and Waymo during the period. These developments point to improvement across some major accounts, alongside the continued impact of prior business losses on the period's results. WPP shares had risen 14% since the start of 2026 through Oct. 29, according to Reuters in a report carried by AOL; this is a cumulative change since the start of the year, not a measure of the share's movement during the trading update announcement session.
The group reiterated its forecast for revenue excluding pass-through costs to decline at a low-to-mid single-digit rate in the second half of 2026, with fourth-quarter performance expected to come in at the better end of the range. It also maintained its full-year underlying operating margin forecast at 12% to 13%, consistent with a second-half margin decline of up to about 200 basis points year on year. WPP expects adjusted operating cash flow before working capital of between £800 million and £900 million in 2026. The range rises to £1.0–1.1 billion excluding expected restructuring costs related to previous plans and the Elevate28 strategy. Chief Executive Cindy Rose said the first phase of the plan aims to stabilise the business and lay the foundations for a "simpler, more unified" group, while the next phase will focus on building. The company is targeting a return to growth during 2027.