WPP joined French groups Publicis and Havas, which were all cut from "neutral" to "underperform" by Schroder Salomon Smith Barney. The bank cited disappointing first quarters as one of the reasons behind the downgrades.
The price target on WPP was slashed from 650p to 400p, Publicis was almost halved from €38 to €20, while Havas's target was dropped from €5.15 to €4.50.
According to Schroder's analyst Stefan Burgstaller: "There is a gradual advertising recovery under way. The first quarter was disappointing and the second quarter showed that firms are at the bottom of the recovery. We are expecting flat organic revenue growth in the second half, which will put pressure on earnings before interest and tax margins."
Shares in WPP Group were down by 4.13% this afternoon, trading at 429.5p. On the Paris bourse, Havas had dropped by 5.3% to €4.47 and Publicis was down 2.03% at €20.31.
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