London, March 20, 2026, 16:15 (GMT)
RELX shares were indicated about 0.4% higher at 2,522.5 pence on Friday, but the stock was still trading below the 2,565 pence level where this week’s 24 million-share block sale — a large overnight placement to investors — was priced. The move showed the shares were still struggling to absorb fresh supply. 1
That matters now because RELX is leaning on capital returns at a time when investors are still testing how much confidence to place in data and legal-information groups facing a faster AI cycle. The company said in February it planned to spend £2.25 billion on buybacks in 2026 after completing £1.5 billion last year. 2
RELX said on Thursday it bought back 481,561 shares on March 19 at a volume-weighted average price of 2,539.2527 pence, taking total repurchases since Jan. 2 to 27.1 million shares. A buyback is when a company repurchases its own stock, trimming the share count and often helping earnings per share. 3
Brokers are still markedly more upbeat than the tape. Barclays analyst Nick Dempsey kept a Buy rating on March 17 and left his target price at 3,075 pence, while MarketScreener data showed a 15-analyst average target of 37.14 pounds, or 47.84% above the last close. 4
Morningstar senior equity analyst Rob Hales turned more constructive after RELX’s February results, writing there was “not even a hint of weakness” in the numbers and lifting his fair value estimate to 4,200 pence. He said growth in the legal and scientific businesses was still improving. 5
RELX management has been making the same case. Chief Executive Erik Engstrom said the company’s “improving long-term growth trajectory” was being driven by higher-growth analytics and decision tools, and that AI would remain a driver of customer value and growth for “many years to come.” 6
Chief Financial Officer Nick Luff told Reuters the group’s edge lay in continuously updated content, large data sets and proprietary algorithms that help deliver “the right judgments” and “the right interpretations” for professional users. That is the core defence RELX has been putting in front of investors. 7
The competitive backdrop is still tough. Reuters reported in early February that RELX, Wolters Kluwer and Thomson Reuters were hit after Anthropic launched legal AI tools, though Hales argued the new plug-in had “nothing to do with legal research,” the core value driver in RELX’s legal franchise. 8
Still, the downside case has not gone away. RELX said in its 2025 Form 20-F that competition, changes in data-use rules, shifts in scientific publishing models and cyber attacks could all hurt demand or operations; the market’s concern, by inference, is that if AI tools erode pricing or usage faster than RELX can build them into its own products, buybacks may only cushion the pressure. 9
Investors now have a short list of near-term markers. RELX’s AGM is scheduled for April 23 in London, the shares go ex-dividend on May 7 for a 48 pence final payout, and first-half results are due on July 23. 10
