Many of the best stocks to buy have historically been businesses that fell from grace only to make a stellar recovery. And in 2026, WPP (LSE:WPP) shares certainly fit the first half of this criterion.
As one of the world’s largest advertising & marketing groups, WPP has been stuck on a downward trajectory since the start of 2025, with over half of its market-cap wiped out since last July.
What happened? And could now secretly be a buying opportunity before WPP shares start bouncing back?
What happened?
With this UK stock having been aggressively sold off, WPP shares are trading at their lowest price since 1996. And while the valuation collapse might be overblown, it isn’t difficult to understand why investors are fleeing.
Throughout 2025, the company posted a parade of profit warnings, continually downgrading revenue and earnings projections, along with the announcement of a major slash to shareholder dividends.
This negativity has only been compounded by fears that the long-standing industry titan is being ravaged by artificial intelligence (AI) disruption. After all, with AI models capable of designing and generating entire marketing strategies, why would businesses hire WPP?
The firm’s already seen some high-profile clients head for the exit, while others have notably cut back on spending. And the negativity among investors has only been amplified by the stock’s ejection from the FTSE 100.
Obviously, this is a fairly disastrous situation. But could WPP potentially reward contrarian thinkers and bounce back to new highs?
Overlooked potential
Under new CEO Cindy Rose, WPP’s launched a brand-new strategy called ‘Elevate28’. It’s a multi-year restructuring programme that involves:
- Delivering £500m in annualised savings by 2028.
- Consolidating the firm’s endless list of businesses into four distinct divisions.
- Investing £300m into WPP Open, the firm’s own proprietary suite of generative AI tools.
It’s a pretty ambitious and aggressive strategy seeking to seemingly overhaul the entire business, transitioning it from a legacy marketing consultancy group to an AI-driven tech platform with expert consultancy attached.
The question is, will this attempted evolution be a success?
Executing restructuring programmes of this scale is notoriously difficult and fraught with executional risk. Yet with WPP shares now trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 3.8, it seems the market’s already expecting failure.
Therefore, if the company does succeed, a subsequently share price rally could deliver jaw-dropping gains similar to what Rolls-Royce generated over the last few years.
A risk worth taking?
Right now, WPP shares are cheap for a reason. Elevate28’s still in its early days, with the underlying business seemingly still deteriorating. And if the attempted transition fails, then today’s dirt cheap share price could actually be a value trap rather than an opportunity.
With that in mind, I think the best course of action is to wait for some signs of rebound progress. If some green shoots of recovery start to emerge and the share price remains depressed, that’s when the odds of WPP being a top stock to buy drastically increase.
