By Adria Calatayud
S4 Capital shares jumped after the U.K. advertising company founded by industry veteran Martin Sorrell reassured on its outlook by projecting a 2026 top-line performance in line with expectations and higher profitability.
Shares in S4 Capital were up 15% in European morning trading, but still down by nearly one third over the past year.
The company said Tuesday that it expected 2026 like-for-like net revenue to be in line with current consensus expectations and slightly below last year's figure. It didn't provide specific estimates, but analysts at Jefferies said in a research note the consensus projects a 1.5% fall on year.
For 2025, S4 Capital reported net revenue of 673 million pounds ($903.8 million), down 8.4% on a like-for-like basis.
"We anticipate that clients will remain cautious in the near term reflecting heightened macroeconomic uncertainty, including evolving tariff dynamics and the continuing conflict in the Middle East," Sorrell, S4 Capital's executive chairman, said.
S4 Capital said it targets an improvement in its operational earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margin of at least one percentage point this year, benefiting from cost-cutting actions it took last year.
The company posted an operational Ebitda margin of 12.1% for 2025, a year during which it shrunk its workforce by 11% to some 6,300 people.
S4 Capital's guidance for 2026 indicated a better outlook for the business as it continues to right-size its operations and improve profitability, the Jefferies analysts said.
Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 24, 2026 05:33 ET (09:33 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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