SGBAF - Barclays hits sidelines on ad giants in uncertain macro times

Barclays downgraded the major advertising-agency holding companies - WPP, Omnicom (NYSE:OMC), Interpublic (NYSE:IPG) and Publicis Groupe (OTCQX:PUBGY) - to Equal Weight, from Overweight, pointing to difficulty for those companies to outperform the market before the macro environment improves. In a broader note looking at European media names, the bank says that after its focus on growth vs. value in the sector, it makes sense to shift to a defensive posture now: "Here the Defensive names do not look stretched vs history – at a time of considerable macro uncertainty." That's leading it to cheaper stocks like Eutelsat (OTCPK:EUTLF), Vivendi (OTCPK:VIVHY), SES (OTCPK:SGBAF) and Byggfakta. On the ad agencies, those companies have "consistently been a sub-sector call, not a stock specific call" - and it had been overweight on the names, based on a few factors: M&A and restructuring was set to return agencies back to 3%-plus organic growth; better disclosure

For further details see:

Barclays hits sidelines on ad giants in uncertain macro times