Interpublic Group posted a significant drop in organic revenue in Q1—3.6%. But investors drove shares up 4% in Thursday morning trading, probably because the company signaled earlier that the decline might as much as 5%, given strong headwinds from client losses last year.  

The consensus projection among analysts was that the decline would be 4.1% so it beat expectations in that context. The company also beat profit margin expectations (excluding a restructuring charge of $203 million for the quarter).  

Several analysts issued notes after IPG posted, including Citi which retains its buy rating on IPG shares. “Given the firm’s pending sale to Omnicom, we would expect a muted reaction in the share price today,” wrote Citi analyst Jason Bazinet.  

UBS analyst Adam Berlin wrote that he expected the market would react positively, in part, he said, because investors were expecting IPG to downgrade its outlook for the year, which it did not. It retained its earlier projection that organic revenue would be down between 1% and 2% for the full year.   

On IPG’s earnings call Thursday morning it was noted that media and data operations combined posted 2% growth for the quarter while creative agencies were down 10%.  

The company’s ongoing restructuring effort will result in savings of $300 million to $350 million annually by 2026 and beyond, CFO Ellen Johnson said on the call. She said there would be “very little” overlap between those savings and the $750 million in synergy cost savings that are expected to be achieved with the merger with Omnicom.   

Analysts peppered Johnson and CEO Philippe Krakowsky with questions about the impact of burgeoning macro-economic issues (read: Trump’s tariff program) on client spending budgets. “Everybody is monitoring the situation,” Krakowsky responded.   

He added that into April, “the media market is steady,” and that “we have not seen any changes yet,” in terms of clients cutting back on spend or shifting to different channels.  

But given the current macro volatility Krakowsky acknowledged that clients are thinking about contingencies. Project spending would be most at risk if the economy slows, he said, followed by easily adjustable digital spend.   

“Everybody is focused on it,” he said, “but are we seeing moves? Not at this point.”  

During the call Krakowsky reported that a sixth market had just approved the merger—Singapore.