London, March 5, 2026, 07:40 GMT
- Aviva said 2025 operating profit rose 25% and it lifted its dividend, restarting share buybacks
- A separate filing showed the £350 million buyback is due to start on March 6 and run into August
- Wall Street Zen cut Aviva’s U.S. OTC ADR rating to “hold”, while a Traders Union analyst flagged near-term volatility
Aviva said on Thursday its 2025 operating profit rose 25% to 2.203 billion pounds and it would restart share buybacks with a 350 million pound programme, alongside a 10% rise in its total dividend. Chief executive Amanda Blanc said Aviva was “commencing a £350 million buyback” as it met group targets a year early. 1
The buyback is expected to start on March 6 and finish by Aug. 6, with Citigroup Global Markets buying shares in the market and selling them back to Aviva for cancellation, a regulatory announcement showed. That detail matters because buybacks are one of the quickest ways insurers return cash, and investors tend to treat the start date as a confidence marker, not just a line in a slide deck. 2
The backdrop is less settled than Aviva’s upbeat tone. Research platform Wall Street Zen cut its rating on Aviva’s U.S. over-the-counter ADR to “hold” from “buy” on Tuesday, according to MarketBeat, underscoring how fast sentiment can move around results season. 3
Aviva said operating earnings per share rose 17% to 56.0 pence and IFRS return on equity — a profitability measure under global accounting rules — increased to 17.5%. Its Solvency II cover ratio, a yardstick for an insurer’s capital buffer, fell to 180% from 203%, while general insurance premiums rose 18% to 14.145 billion pounds; the combined operating ratio improved to 94.6%, with a figure below 100% indicating underwriting profit. 4
The stock closed on Wednesday at 667.4 pence, up 2.42%, valuing the insurer at about 20.29 billion pounds, Hargreaves Lansdown data showed. The FTSE 100 ended up 0.80%. 5
Trading website Traders Union said overbought signals and pre-results positioning had pushed swings in the price, with support and resistance levels packed into a tight band. “If the market mood improves and buyers step up, AV can quickly recover toward the upper band,” said Viktoras Karapetjanc, an expert at Traders Union. 6
Aviva sells insurance, wealth and retirement products and has been leaning into fee-based business as well as bulk annuities and workplace pensions. In the UK market it competes with insurers such as Legal & General and Prudential, while also facing the usual squeeze from price competition in personal lines.
But a restart in buybacks does not erase the awkward bits. A thinner capital buffer, a tough claims year — Aviva itself flagged weather as a swing factor for Canada — or a messier-than-expected integration of Direct Line could all force a slower pace on capital returns, even with profits rising.
Aviva released the results at 0700 GMT ahead of the London open and said it would hold an investor update at 0830 GMT. The next test will be whether management’s new targets and buyback pace satisfy a market that has started to split into cheerleaders and sceptics again. 7
