• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 11, 2016

Despite a conflux of volatile developments ranging from Brexit to ongoing “transparency” probes, influential Wall Street analyst Brian Wieser has raised stock price targets for WPP, Publicis and Interpublic and is maintaining his recent recommendations for the Big 4, including Omnicom.

The revised outlook from the Pivotal Research Group analyst comes in advance of second quarter earnings reports and reaffirms “hold” ratings for WPP and Omnicom and “buy” ratings for Publicis and Interpublic, even though both Brexit and transparency issues have created uncertainty for agencies.

Wieser projects “modest reductions” in organic growth projections due to the impact of Brexit due to “increased uncertainty and delayed investments among marketers with European operations.”

He also predicted, “the rebate/transparency issue isn’t going away any time soon,” adding that the “increased appreciation marketers have for the ways in which holding companies generate revenues within contractual boundaries is causing marketers to more carefully scrutinize their relationships with agencies, and adds to pre-existing like-for-like fee pressure.”