Earnings Preview: Omnicom Group

Omnicom Group (OMC) is expected to report Q2 earnings before market open Tuesday, July 22, with a conference call scheduled for 8:30 am ET.

Guidance

Analysts are looking for a profit of 96c on revenue of $3.45B. The consensus range is 93c to 99c for EPS, and revenue of $3.37B to $3.5B, according to First Call.

Analyst Views

In a July 7 note, Bernstein downgraded shares to Market Perform from Outperform. The firm believes that the organic revenue of ad agencies will weaken in 2H08 and 2009 and does not think their multiples will expand significantly over the next year.

Citigroup downgraded shares to Hold from Buy on July 17. The firm said that ad agencies should show relatively in-line performance for Q2, but remains cautious on the outlook for Q4 and FY2009. The firm believes Omnicom is a core media holding, but given an unlikely recovery for the ad industry until late 2009/2010, the stock is expected to be range bound. Additionally, the U.S. ad forecast for 2008 was lowered by Citigroup "to account for cautious expectations across virtually all media outlets". The new forecast for 2008 growth is 0.2%, down from the previous estimate of 3.1%.