WPP Share News (WPP)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London were higher early on Friday, with the large cap index boosted by WPP despite its warning of a "challenging" year ahead.There were number of movers in the FTSE 250, including Jupiter Fund Management, IMI, Coats, and Man Group, after a busy day for mid-cap results. The FTSE 100 was 28.09 points higher, or 0.4%, at 7,102.82.The FTSE 250 was up 83.89 points, or 0.4%, at 19,265.24, while the AIM All-Share index was 0.1% higher at 910.3.The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.3% at 12,075.74, while the Cboe UK 250 was also 0.3% higher, at 17,193.34. The Cboe UK Small Companies was marginally lower at 11,110.8.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.5%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt climbed 0.6%.On the London Stock Exchange, FTSE 100 advertiser WPP was up 6.7%, at the top of the large cap inde. It said 2019 will be a "challenging" year after client losses in 2018, though it performed well against guidance for the recent year. Revenue in 2018 fell 1.3%, but rose 0.8% like-for-like, to GBP15.60 billion, as pretax profit slumped 31% to GBP1.46 billion.Billings were up 0.4%, and 3.2% like-for-like, to GBP55.80 billion. Revenue without pass-through costs fell 2.6%, and 0.4% like-for-like, to GBP12.83 billion.This result, WPP noted, was at the upper end of guidance it gave in October.WPP's total dividend for 2018 was flat at 60.0 pence per share. It paid a final dividend of 37.3p, and an interim of 22.7p, meaning its payout ratio was 56% compared to 50% in 2017.WPP's main focus in 2019 will be addressing problems in North America, and it is guiding for like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs to fall between 1.5% to 2.0% due to 2018's lost clients, with the first half to be particularly difficult.Rightmove was 8.7% lower despite reporting a "strong" annual performance with revenue and profit rising on the prior year, while its chair has also announced plans to leave.Chair Peter Williams will step down from the board at the end of its annual general meeting in May. Williams will leave Rightmove after more than five years. Rightmove hopes to appoint a new chair before its 2020 AGM.For 2018, the FTSE 100 online property website posted pretax profit of GBP198.3 million, higher compared to GBP178.2 million a year ago. Revenue rose 10% year-on-year to GBP267.8 million from GBP243.3 million. Average site visits rose 4% during the year to 132 million per month."2018 was another strong year for Rightmove. We extended our market leadership and reinforced our position as the place consumers turn to first when thinking about moving home. In doing so, we demonstrated Rightmove is a business which can continue to grow strongly even in uncertain times," Chief Executive Peter Brooks-Johnson said.Rightmove upped its total dividend to 6.40 pence per share from 5.40p, meaning it will return GBP55.0 million to shareholders. The final payout for the year amounted to 4.0p, rising 11% from 3.6p a year ago.London Stock Exchange Group was 0.4% lower, clawing back early losses, as it navigated a difficult 2018 to post strong growth in what was Chief Executive David Schwimmer's first set of results at the helm of the stock exchange and clearing operator and market indices provider.LSE, looking forward, said it "does not plan" to meet its cost and margin targets in 2019 so that it can prioritise further investment. LSE hiked its total dividend for 2018. It proposed a final dividend of 43.2 pence, 16% higher than the year before, taking its total dividend to 60.4p, a 17% increase on the 51.6p distributed in 2017.LSE reported pretax profit rose by 27% to GBP685.0 million in 2018 from GBP541.0 million in 2017, with gross profit increasing 9.8% to GBP1.91 billion compared to GBP1.74 billion.Analyst consensus had LSE recording GBP1.91 billion gross profit, meaning the result was exactly as expected.Total revenue grew by 7.9% to GBP1.91 billion from GBP1.77 billion in 2017, marginally ahead of analyst consensus. Total income increased by 9.2% to GBP2.14 billion from GBP1.96 billion in 2017. Again, this was marginally ahead of consensus.Gaining in the FTSE 250 was engineer IMI, up 3.7%, as it reported strong profit growth in 2018, while it has also announced a change of leadership.Chief Executive Mark Selway is to leave on May 9 after five years, to be replaced by Roy Twite, who is current managing director of IMI's Critical Engineering arm.IMI's pretax profit rose 18% to GBP213 million in 2018, and increased 12% on an adjusted basis to GBP251 million. Revenue was up 9%, and 5% organically, to GBP1.91 billion.IMI is to pay a final dividend of 26p, taking the year's total to 40.6p, up from 39.4p in 2017.IMI, which said 2018 was a year of "important" progress, has warned first half organic revenue in 2019 will be lower year-on-year due to its Critical Engineering order book's phasing and slower demand in Precision Engineering, though margins will be "broadly" similar.Jupiter Fund Management was 8.8% higher, though it reported a fall in assets under management by 15% to GBP42.7 billion. Jupiter blamed market and exchange rate movements for a negative GBP2.9 investment performance.Jupiter also recorded net outflows of GBP4.6 billion in 2018 compared to GBP5.5 billion of net inflows in 2017.The fund manager reported a slight rise in net management fees to GBP395.7 million from GBP392.4 million in 2017. Jupiter reported a 7.1% decrease in pretax profit to GBP179.2 million from GBP192.9 million the year before.Jupiter's 2018 dividend is 13% to 28.5 pence from the 32.6p distributed in 2017.Industrial components maker Essentra was up 2.4% as it swung to a pretax profit in 2018 of GBP36 million, after a loss of GBP5 million in 2016, with adjusted pretax profit rising 8% to GBP80 million.Revenue was flat at GBP1.03 billion, and Essentra's Chief Executive Paul Forman said the firm has now "turned a corner".Packaging returned to growth in 2018, and though he did caution the macroeconomic environment in 2019 in uncertain, Forman expects Essentra to achieve further progress.Essentra will pay a final dividend of 14.4p for the year, meaning its total is 20.7p, the same as a year prior.B&M European Value Retail was 2.7% higher as Royal Bank of Canada raised its rating to Top Pick from Outperform. At the other end of the FTSE 250 was thread maker Coats, down 5.6%, after pretax profit came in at USD122.8 million for 2018, from USD129.5 million in 2019. Revenue rose 4% to USD1.42 billion, and organic growth was 3%.On an adjusted basis, the company's pretax profit rose to USD170.6 million from USD138.6 million.The final dividend is 1.16 US cents, meaning the total for 2018 will be 1.66 cents, up from 1.44 cents a year before.Coats is cautious for 2019 on the back of macroeconomic uncertainty, but did say the company enters the year in a strong position.Man Group was down 3.7% as it reported a drop in net inflows to USD10.8 billion for 2018, from USD12.8 billion in 2019, while funds under management dipped slightly to USD108.5 billion from USD109.1 billion.Man also reported a negative investment movement of USD7.7 billion, after a positive USD10.7 billion in 2017.Adjusted pretax profit was USD251 million, from USD384 million a yea prior, while on a statutory basis the figure rose to USD278 million from USD272 million.Man is paying a final dividend of 5.4 US cents, taking the total 9% higher year-on-year to 11.8 cents.Bookmaker William Hill lost 2.1%. It took a GBP882.2 million impairment in its Retail unit due to the UK government's decision to cap stakes in fixed-odds betting machines at GBP2.This had led to a GBP721.9 million pretax loss in its year ended January 1, which had an extra week from the prior year, in which William Hill posted a GBP146.5 million pretax profit.On an adjusted basis, stripping out this impairment and other items, pretax profit declined 16% to GBP200.2 million, though net revenue climbed 2% to GBP1.62 billion.William Hill is to pay a 7.74p final dividend, taking the year's total to 12.0p, down from 13.2p a year before.The company said its Online and US businesses have both done well, while Retail was "resilient" in a difficult UK environment, and it is confident it can navigate regulatory changes over the next few years.Elsewhere, recruiter Robert Walters rose 11% after it reported a 21% rise in pretax profit to GBP49.1 million in 2018, as revenue climbed 6% to GBP1.23 billion. Net fee income climbed 14% to GBP392.0 million, while it has increased its final dividend to 10.7p from 9.3p, meaning it's 2018 dividend is up 22% to 14.7p in total. The company had a "strong" year, with Europe and Asia-Pacific doing particularly well. On the economic front, China's manufacturing output staged a slight improvement in February, but the sector remains in contraction territory, IHS Markit's latest Caixin general manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index showed early Friday.The PMI came in at 49.9 in February, slightly below the no-change mark of 50, but up from January's reading of 48.3.Though February's reading marked the highest score in three months, any reading under 50 indicates contraction in the sector.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed 1.0% higher Friday. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed up 1.8%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong ended 0.6% higher.Japan also had manufacturing data out overnight, with the sector falling into contraction in February, the latest survey from Nikkei revealed, with a 32-month low manufacturing PMI score of 48.9. That's down from 50.3 in January, and it slips beneath the line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.There are further manufacturing PMIs due from Italy, France, Germany, eurozone, the UK, and the US at 0845 GMT, 0850 GMT, 0855 GMT, 0900 GMT, 0930 GMT, and 1500 GMT respectively on Friday.There are also German unemployment figures at 0855 GMT and UK mortgage approval numbers at 0930 GMT, as well as eurozone consumer prices and unemployment at 1000 GMT Ireland already has a manufacturing PMI reading out, with February seeing a "solid improvement" in manufacturing conditions, Markit said.The seasonally adjusted PMI was 54.0 in February, up from 52.6 in January, and Markit said February was the 69th consecutive month business conditions have improved in Ireland.The pound was quoted at USD1.3241 early Friday, down from USD1.3286 at the close Thursday.In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended in the red, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq Composite all ending 0.3% down.North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump agreed at their second summit in Hanoi to continue dialogue "in order to realize denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and improvement in bilateral relations", the South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted Pyongyang's official news agency KCNA as saying on Friday.KCNA, however, made no mention of the Trump-Kim summit ending on Thursday without a signed agreement or declaration, according to the report.Earlier, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said North Korea only asked for partial sanctions relief during negotiations with Trump, countering the US president's version of the nuclear talks in Hanoi.