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This has now dropped nearly 24% since hitting 60.8 less than a month ago. What a joke of a company. Markets booming all over meanwhile.
This incessant selling does not bode well, dreading the results!
According to their presentation, tech client mix fell to 43% in 2023 vs 47% in 2022, so not that much but obviously the revenue impact was far higher.
A couple of big corporate client wins would go a long way to plugging the gap.
Perhaps they would be better off not betting the house on whoppers full stop. There are only so many of these massive corporations to go round, especially on the scale of the likes Meta. When one or two of them cut spend, the impact is disproportionately large, company's prospects become too dependent on them.
No shame in smaller clients either, especially when S4 itself is now a fraction of the size it once was in terms of market cap.
With enough volume, smaller contracts can go some way to offsetting larger ones. This is also where AI comes in, it should mean scaling up to larger number of clients much more feasible with more automation and fewer human resources.
Redwineday,
They are doing this, admittedly not fast enough but they do have a broad mix of clients ( just heavily tech weighted in terms of percentage of revenue,) wasn't the total number recently around 200 clients ? One of which is the worlds largest advertiser by ad spend. I think Publicis are performing so well over say WPP or IPG, because they are just doing things better not because of the client mix.
Exactly. The tech clients blah is wearing thin. Find some new clients, which is something they admitted in the last call they have failed to do.
They need to win whoppers outside tech and adjust their balance fast.
That’s why publicis etc are our performing them in digital at the moment.
So far the tech giants have increased their ad income without the need to increase their marketing spend.
Maybe so but both WPP and S4 have reported that tech clients have reduced spend and this has been the biggest impact of revenue, not the clients of tech clients.
Obviously clients like Meta and Google have been keeping costs down, particularly Meta. This has caused a rebound in their profitability. We need to hope that their better circumstances will lead them to loosen the purse strings to drive further growth. I'm sot sure thats a certainty though. Companies that discover they can spend less and at the same time increase revenue are unlikely to give up that unless they have a clear need.
I think the point is that the likes of Google and Amazon are reporting increased advertising spend on their platforms for the first time on 18 months and therefore their earnings are higher.The hope is this trend feeds across to us but the WPP results indicate that it hasnt quite yet.
What has tech earnings got to do with it? S4 makes money when its tech client s spend money and at the moment they are saving mount by cutting cost. This cost cutting is driving their earnings. S4's earnings are not correlated to its clients earnings in the way you suggest.
Especially against good tech earnings in the US
I hold a large long term position but am extremely concerned when we dropped into the 40s and haven’t bounced
No need to be rude but yes the buy back was announced much early so not the reason it bounced.
Thanks for correction and I welcome the knowledge.
I do buy and try to hold but these stocks can drop 20+% on results day and been caught too many times in past couple of years so these days I always ‘kick the tires’ prior to results.
Frankly it’s enormously stupid not to but that doesn’t make me a trader just a sensibly cautious Investor.
Agree. Rock is just a trader. Fair enough but we don't need to be fed his garbage.
The buyback had completed much before the results were released on the 27th March. It's not as if the buyback pushed up the SP on the 28th March - please at least get facts correct, Rock8. I don't care much about how you're positioned ahead of the update - to each their own!!!
It’s not my book at the moment but it will be.
Currently long but already reduced slightly on 2nd.
Board needs to balanced.
"The buyback helped salvage the 27th fall" - That's complete nonsense !!!
You're really trying to trade your book here. Another wildtiger. Wish you would just get lost.
The buyback helped salvage the 27th fall and we don’t have that this time.
S4Captital outlook 27th Mar reliant on Q4
…. For the Company as a whole, given the current outlook for Technology Services and wider market uncertainty, we are targeting like-for-like net revenue to be down on the prior year with a broadly similar overall level of operational EBITDA as 2023, as a result of cost reductions made in the previous year. The comparatives with 2023 will be difficult in the first-half and will be easier in the second-half. We expect the year to be heavily second-half weighted, with improving end markets and our normal seasonality.
Thanks Nige
Looking at WPP I can’t see any tech companies guidance for H2 (?) so I assume it’s not significant or unknown although it’s a large proportion of WPPs business,
That’s concerning.
US election should help market but maybe not all of tech?
Too much unknown so will likely reduce further before Friday especially as new short position likely opened?
I am hopeful by end of year just not for Friday.
"Have they bought their buy back now?"
Morning Rock, yes the share buyback concluded in March after reaching the target of 6m shares 1% of the company. The plan is to start another buyback program sometime this financial year, along with a possible dividend. I personally don't want a dividend, I think that management should be buying back shares, anything below 100p.
It’s difficult to know what will happen, with some of large us tech companies reporting improved advertising numbers but WPPs numbers are down around 10% for digital. This is defiantly the first quarter in some time that we’ve had some hope of good numbers. I think I’m going to exit and wait in the results rather than sitting it out, just don’t feel confident enough at the moment. Though I think this will be over £1 by the end of the year.
I hadn’t called it right!
Sorry
Yes but it’s one of those occasions I wish I’d called it right.
Suspect we will continue to drop into Friday.
Friday? Possible new low?
Have they bought their buy back now?