Berenberg analyst Alastair Reid downgraded WPP to Sell and lowered his price target for the shares to 1,075p from 1,275p. The company's operational performance in Q1 is below peers, especially in North America, Reid tells investors in a research note. The analyst expects WPP's situation to get worse before improving amidst the management change.

Reports Q1 revenue -1.4%; LFL revenue +2.1%; Reports Q1 LFL revenue less pass-through costs -1.6% with growth in the UK and Western Continental Europe offset by declines in North America and Asia Pacific, which saw strong growth in India offset by a decline in China ...The first quarter of 2024 was very much in line with our expectations with performance reflecting the toughest comparator of the year. "Strategically, we have progressed well on the priorities set out at our Capital Markets Day at the end of January. We've rolled out multiple AI tools through our intelligent marketing operating system WPP Open, including the latest foundation models from Bria, Google and OpenAI, and at Google Cloud Next we launched our Performance Brain to predict the best-performing content ahead of campaigns going live. These products are being deployed at scale, together with investment in training for our people. WPP Open was also at the heart of our most recent new business successes, including major media wins with Nestle. "Structurally, VML is now well established and is on track to deliver savings. GroupM is progressing well with its simplification and Burson will be operational in July. I'm very pleased with the progress we are making and we are already seeing the benefits of a simpler and more agile structure for our clients. "Our outlook for the full year is reiterated. We remain on track to return to growth in the balance of the year, supported by an encouraging new business pipeline and the strength of our business creatively and in media, both powered by new AI capabilities, while our simpler structure will drive organisational flexibility and stronger cash conversion."