WPP CEO and chair buy 100,000 shares after stock price slump

WPP’s two top leaders have each spent more than £140,000 buying 50,000 shares in the agency group in a co-ordinated move.

The decision by Cindy Rose, the new chief executive, and Philip Jansen, the chair, to buy a combined total of 100,000 shares for about £287,000 appears to be designed to lift investor sentiment with regard to the company’s embattled stock.

WPP declined to comment but it is thought the CEO and chair were keen to send a message they are confident about the company’s direction.

WPP’s stock has plunged by about 65% from 830p to around 290p since the start of 2025, after two profit warnings in three months — in July and October — and some major client losses such as Bayer, Coca-Cola and Mars.

The share price took a fresh lurch downwards after the second profit warning at the Q3 results on October 30, falling 16% on that day to almost 300p — its lowest level since 1998. WPP has been trading as low as 270p in recent days.

A stock market filing shows Rose paid 288.7p per share, or about £144,350, to buy 50,000 shares. Jansen paid 285.1p per share, or about £142,550, to acquire his shares. They jointly paid about £287,000.

Both purchases were made on November 13 and WPP’s share price ended trading at about 291p.

Senior company executives usually receive stock as part of their compensation at set times of the year and it is less common for directors, particularly a non-executive chair, to buy stock in a more impromptu way.

It is often used to signal confidence or to show that the stock might be undervalued — as happened when Mark Read, Rose’s predecessor as chief executive, bought 85,000 shares during the pandemic in 2020.

Speculation about WPP’s future has mounted as investors await strategy review

Some other investors have been buying into WPP in the last week. A separate stock market filing shows Redwheel, a UK-based value investor, bought a 5.25% stake in WPP on November 6.

The price was undisclosed but the stock was trading at about 275p at the time, which would suggest the investment company’s stake is worth around £150m.

Speculation about WPP’s future has mounted as investors wait for Rose to announce the outcome of her much-anticipated strategy review early in 2026.

Campaign reported on Monday that WPP has appointed management consulting firm McKinsey to advise on the review.

Rose has also been making a flurry of appointments in recent days, promoting Conrad Persons, chief executive of Grey London, to a new role as chief of staff and naming Elav Horwitz, executive vice-president, global head of strategic partnerships and AI solutions, to another new role as chief innovation officer.

Rose’s latest share purchase appears to be largely symbolic as she was awarded more than one million shares, worth about £4.5m at the time, when she started as CEO on September 1.

In a sign of how WPP’s stock remains under pressure, a regulatory disclosure shows eight hedge funds and other investment companies have been shorting WPP’s share price in recent weeks.

The combined short position against the stock is worth about 8% of WPP’s stock market capitalisation, according to the Financial Conduct Authority.

WPP was once the world’s most valuable agency group with a £24bn valuation at its peak in 2017 but is now valued at about £3bn.