Omnicom up 11 pct in 2Q, slowing growth hits stock

But the company's organic growth was the lowest in nearly five years and overseas gains were largely due to the weak dollar. Executives at the New York-based company said they are cautiously optimistic for the rest of the year.

"There is an economic headwind out there, and we're not immune from it," president and Chief Executive John Wren said in a conference call with analysts.

Shares of Omnicom fell $1.05, or 2.5 percent, to end at $41.27 Tuesday.

Omnicom earned $307 million, or 96 cents per share, in the quarter, compared with $276.7 million, or 84 cents, in the same period a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, were forecasting earnings of 96 cents per share on revenue of $3.45 billion.

Omnicom reported revenue rising 11.2 percent to $3.477 billion for the quarter.

Domestic revenue was up 5.5 percent to $1.751 billion, and international rose 17.7 percent to $1.73 billion compared to the same period a year earlier. The weakness of the dollar on foreign currency markets accounted for 11 percentage points of the rise in Omnicom's international revenue.

Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Latin America brought in strong performances. Growth in Spain, the UK, Italy and Canada was slower.

Overall organic growth--from existing operations, excluding acquisitions and other external factors--came to 4.8 percent. It was the lowest growth rate since 2003 and likely was behind the fall in Omnicom's stock price Tuesday, said Jim Peters, an analyst at Standard & Poor's in New York.