WPP says on track for full-year net sales growth

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LONDON, April 23 (Reuters) - Britain's WPP (LSE: WPP.L - news) , the world's biggest advertising company, said it was on track for its full-year like-for-like net sales target after winning new work, despite posting a slight slowdown in the first-quarter.

WPP, which counts the likes of Ford, Unilever (NYSE: UL - news) and Microsoft (NasdaqGS: MSFT - news) among its clients, reported a 3.3 percent rise in 2014 like-for-like net sales and a 3.9 percent rise in January.

On Thursday it posted first-quarter growth of 2.5 percent but said this still fitted within its forecast for the full-year as it expects growth to accelerate over time. It said profits and margin were well above target.

Analysts said the British group, run by the high-profile businessman Martin Sorrell, had faced tough comparatives in the first quarter and welcomed the reiteration of the full-year outlook and the near $1 billion of net new business it announced.

The measurement more commonly used by its peers, like-for-like revenue, was up 5.2 percent in the period, in line with rival Omnicom, the No. 1 U.S. advertising company, and ahead of France's Publicis (Paris: FR0000130577 - news) which posted growth of 0.9 percent. (Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by James Davey)