London, May 13, 2026, 12:03 BST
- Shares in RELX slipped 2.4% to 2,396p late this morning in London—making it one of the steeper drops on the FTSE 100—even as European markets overall traded higher.
- This shift seems driven less by RELX’s latest guidance, and more by fresh investor questions over how much pricing muscle legal-data firms really have—especially after Anthropic rolled out expanded Claude legal AI tools on Tuesday.
- Bulls point to cash flow, risk appetite for growth, and ongoing buybacks. Bears, on the other hand, flag a new concern: will AI start to erode the premium investors have long given specialist data platforms?
Investors offloaded RELX in a session where broader markets rallied. The stock dropped to 2,396p by 12:03 BST, off 59p, or 2.4%. It started the day at 2,412p and touched a low of 2,388.01p. Both the FTSE 100 and Germany’s DAX were in positive territory earlier, so RELX’s slide wasn’t a simple case of following the indices.
Legal AI is the story here. On Tuesday, Anthropic rolled out an expanded Claude offering tailored for law firms and attorneys, bundling in new legal tools and integrations with the likes of Thomson Reuters, Harvey, Box, Everlaw, and DocuSign. “The legal industry is seeing an incredible uptick” in AI use, Anthropic associate general counsel Mark Pike told Reuters. Reuters
This hits home for RELX. LexisNexis, the company’s legal arm, thrives by offering lawyers a unified platform—trusted material, search, analytics, and workflow tools all bundled together. But as general-purpose AI assistants insert themselves into that process, a tougher question looms for the market: does the client relationship belong with the data provider, or does the AI interface take control?
RELX isn’t coming in on the back foot. In its April trading update, the firm reported a solid start to the year across each of its four divisions, sticking with its outlook for robust underlying revenue and adjusted operating profit gains. That “underlying” figure refers to like-for-like growth—factoring out things like currency movements, acquisitions, and specific timing quirks. Relx
Management isn’t buying the argument that AI is eroding its business. In February, Chief Executive Erik Engstrom described AI as a growth engine for RELX that’s been in play for more than ten years, and said it should keep driving gains “for many years to come.” CFO Nick Luff, speaking with Reuters, pointed to the company’s proprietary data and algorithms as the key to delivering “right judgments” for clients making high-stakes decisions. Relx
The chart doesn’t mince words. Investors are looking for evidence, not just another nod to the moat argument.
Today’s RELX investor seminar on Risk — Business Services carries extra weight, far beyond a standard investor-day event. Risk isn’t just another legal research segment; the real drivers here are financial crime compliance, digital fraud and identity, insurance-related data, and embedded decision tech. A clear Risk pitch helps underscore for investors that RELX reaches well beyond LexisNexis. Still, the morning saw shares fall.
The bull thesis remains intact here. RELX’s professional data revenue keeps recurring, with underlying revenue up 7% and adjusted operating profit rising 9% for 2025. Buybacks are still in motion—£2.25 billion set for this year. The company snapped up 2.59 million shares from May 5 to May 8; since January 2, repurchases have reached 48.28 million shares.
The bear argument is simple: buybacks can’t resolve questions around product-market fit. Back in February, shares of RELX and Wolters Kluwer sank after Anthropic’s legal-tech move, as reported by Reuters. Schroders analyst Jonathan McMullan pointed out that the sector was being repriced—investors were no longer willing to pay up for the old “visibility premium.” That’s the crux: if AI makes outcomes harder to predict, then stable, software-like revenues start to lose their luster. Reuters
Competitive moves aren’t a one-way street. Thomson Reuters is bringing CoCounsel and Westlaw into Claude, but insists this doesn’t replace its CoCounsel Legal platform. It’s a play to capture lawyers already leaning into AI, while keeping its own vetted content behind a professional gate. Over at RELX, Lexis+ and Protégé AI are in focus, yet the latest trading suggests investors remain impatient for clearer evidence on adoption and stickiness.
It’s not just RELX feeling the heat. Google Finance showed Wolters Kluwer and Sage down as well, though Rightmove managed a minor uptick—a hint that losses are hitting data, software, and workflow stocks in particular, not the London market across the board. For legal and professional info, Thomson Reuters, Wolters Kluwer, and RELX form the core peer group.
Valuation weighs on RELX, too. The company’s price-to-earnings ratio clocks in at 21.39 on Google Finance — hardly distressed territory. Shares trade nowhere near the 52-week top of 4,183p, but still hold well above the 1,991p bottom. That multiple allows for let-downs if the growth outlook wobbles.
Here’s what’s moving: RELX isn’t under pressure because of a new profit warning—today’s drop tracks back to Anthropic’s latest legal move, which has dragged the central February worry back into the open. RELX maintains it’s got the edge by combining proprietary data with AI. Right now, the market wants more proof, and it’s not letting up.
