SharkNinja shares soar 11% as third quarter results crush expectations
Investing.com -- British stocks closed flat on Thursday as wider European indices traded mixed, while the pound fell to $1.31 and WPP shares tumbled after the company cut its full-year growth forecast.
The blue-chip index FTSE 100 fell 0.01% and the British GBP/USD dropped about 0.3% against the dollar.
The DAX index in Germany edged 0.02% higher, and the CAC 40 in France fell 0.5%.
UK round-up:
- WPP PLC (LON:WPP) shares tumbled after the advertising giant cut its full-year growth forecast and posted disappointing third-quarter results. The company now expects like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs to decline between 5.5% and 6.0% for 2025, a significant downgrade from its previous forecast of a 3% to 5% drop. For the third quarter, WPP reported revenue of £3.26 billion, down 8.4% year-over-year on a reported basis and 3.5% on a like-for-like basis. Revenue less pass-through costs fell 11.1% to £2.46 billion, representing a 5.9% like-for-like decline. The company attributed the poor performance to a significant deterioration in its WPP Media business compared to the second quarter.
- In contrast, Standard Chartered PLC (LON:STAN) shares rose after the Anglo-Asian lender posted better-than-expected third-quarter profit and raised its 2025 targets. The bank’s underlying profit before tax increased 10% year-on-year to $1.99 billion, exceeding Bloomberg estimates of $1.79 billion.
- Shell PLC (AS:SHEL) also reported positive results, with income attributable to shareholders rising to $5.3 billion from $3.6 billion in the previous quarter and $4.3 billion a year earlier. The oil giant’s adjusted earnings climbed to $5.4 billion from $4.3 billion, while adjusted EBITDA increased to $14.8 billion from $13.3 billion.
- Meanwhile, Computacenter PLC (LON:CCC) reported strong third-quarter performance, with the technology and services provider "comfortably ahead" of last year for the first nine months of 2025. The company maintained strong momentum in North America, saw improvement in the UK, and returned to growth in Germany.
- HALEON PLC (LON:HLN) reaffirmed its full-year guidance despite mixed regional performance in the third quarter. The consumer health company maintained its organic revenue growth forecast of around 3.5% for fiscal year 2025, slightly ahead of analyst consensus of 3.4%.
- Drax Group PLC (OTC:DRXGY) has signed an agreement to acquire three battery energy storage system projects from Apatura Limited for £157.2 million, the company announced Thursday. The portfolio will provide 260MW of 2-hour duration storage capacity across sites in Scotland and England. Drax will make staged payments between 2025 and 2028 based on construction milestones.
- In separate news, Vodafone Group PLC (LON:VOD) announced it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire Skaylink GmbH for €175 million from funds managed by Waterland. Skaylink is a full-service cloud, digital transformation and security specialist with offices throughout Germany and across Europe.