LONDON, March 12, 2026, 16:41 GMT
Pearson shares closed around 984 pence on Thursday, up about 0.7%, after the British education company disclosed another daily share repurchase under its 350 million pound buyback programme. The latest filing showed Pearson bought 1.19 million shares on March 11 and plans to cancel them. 1
That matters now because Pearson is using cash returns to help steady a stock still dealing with doubts over how far artificial intelligence could eat into parts of its business, especially digital course materials and learning tools. A buyback, when a company repurchases its own stock, cuts the number of shares in the market and can lift earnings per share, or profit spread over fewer shares. 2
Thursday’s filing showed Pearson bought 1,194,877 shares at an average 984.51 pence. A filing a day earlier showed another 1,208,093 shares bought on March 10 at an average 987.99 pence; together, the two sessions amount to roughly 23.7 million pounds by calculations based on the filing data, and both purchases sit inside the first 175 million-pound leg of the programme. 3
Pearson renewed the capital return after reporting 2025 results and saying last year’s 350 million-pound buyback had cut its share count by 5%. The company said sales grew 4% on an underlying basis, excluding currency swings and some one-off items, while adjusted operating profit, which strips out some exceptional charges, rose 6% to 614 million pounds; it guided to mid-single-digit sales growth in 2026 and adjusted operating profit of 640 million to 685 million pounds. 4
Chief Executive Omar Abbosh said with those results that Pearson had made “significant progress” scaling AI and building “tangible momentum” in its enterprise business. In an interview the same day, he said Pearson operates at a “very high level of trust” and argued its AI tools improved student outcomes rather than weakening them. 4
That pitch has not fully settled the market. Pearson shares had fallen about 30% over the previous 12 months by late February, and the company was swept into a broader selloff in European information and analytics stocks alongside peers such as RELX and Wolters Kluwer after Anthropic launched new AI tools that sharpened fears around automation. 2
But the buyback does not remove operating risks. Pearson said in January it had lost a New Jersey student assessment contract worth 20 million to 30 million pounds, and AJ Bell’s Dan Coatsworth said at the time that the contract loss and limited detail on guidance were enough to see the shares “punished.” 5
Even after Thursday’s rise, the stock remains about 23% below its 52-week high of 1,275 pence. Hargreaves Lansdown data showed Pearson traded in a 973 pence to 997 pence range on Thursday before finishing the session around 984 pence. 1
For now, the repurchases are giving the stock a bit of cover. The harder part comes next: investors will want fresh contract wins and firmer proof that Pearson’s AI push can protect margins and turn into durable growth, not just a better-looking share count. 5
