LONDON, June 19, 2026, 12:00 BST
- RELX edged up nearly 1% after sinking 3.97% on Thursday, but the stock was still down about 4.8% this week.
- RELX is still running a £200 million share-buyback tranche through June 26. The company also paid out its 48-pence final dividend on Thursday.
- RELX sets July 23 for interim results, which will check if artificial intelligence is lifting its growth as the company claims, not slowing it.
RELX shares traded around 2,374 pence in late-morning London action Friday, up 1.1%. The stock dropped 3.97% to 2,348 pence the day before. Shares remain about 4.8% lower than last Friday’s 2,492 pence close.
RELX shares have bounced off recent lows, but with the company sticking to its 2026 outlook, the stock is still trading roughly 41% under its 52-week high of 4,030 pence. The move points to doubts over RELX’s future earnings strength, rather than a response to any immediate profit warning.
FTSE 100 slips as U.S.-Iran talks scrapped, energy stocks offer some support
The FTSE 100 traded down 0.05% at 10,394.30 by 0948 GMT. The index struggled for direction after news that U.S.-Iran talks were cancelled, hitting risk appetite. Energy and healthcare names gave some lift.
RELX handed out its 48p final dividend on Thursday, but since the shares went ex-div on May 7, Thursday’s price wasn’t cut by the 48p payout. Elsewhere, Rosemary Thomson, a manager, got an option for 922 shares at a £19.728 strike through an employee save-as-you-earn program. This was disclosed separately and wasn’t a trading update.
RELX is running a £200 million non-discretionary buyback from June 9 to June 26. Non-discretionary says a bank handles the purchases based on preset rules. This tranche sits inside RELX’s £2.25 billion repurchasing push for 2026. Despite the program, the stock is still seeing sharp daily moves.
Operational indicators are still solid. RELX said in April that it saw strong starts across its four divisions, with underlying revenue, profit and new sales up. “Underlying” means growth is stripped of FX swings, deals, asset sales and timing shifts. Legal kept up double-digit gains, helped by more users on its Lexis+ platform and its Protégé AI assistant. Relx
RELX posted 2025 revenue of £9.59 billion, a 7% gain on an underlying basis. Adjusted operating profit came in at £3.34 billion, up 9%. CEO Erik Engstrom said AI would “remain a growth driver for many years to come.” Finance chief Nick Luff told Reuters RELX’s algorithms aim to deliver “the right judgments, the right inferences, and the right interpretations” for professionals. Relx
Some in the market point to risks. General-purpose AI may handle routine legal research, document drafting and data crunching, which could cut into subscription prices and subscriber growth. That worry has weighed on Wolters Kluwer and Thomson Reuters, after Anthropic rolled out AI tools for legal and compliance users.
RELX trades at about 21 times trailing earnings. That’s well above levels for a typical distressed name. The market is baking in a smaller confidence discount. Investors haven’t walked away from RELX’s recurring revenue, proprietary content, or workflows, but they’re less sure those edges will stand up as AI-native rivals get better.
July’s numbers could bring weaker Legal bookings, softer pricing or AI spend getting ahead of revenue. Currency swings and global tensions impacting exhibitions are also in the mix. On the other side, the case for RELX gets a lift if Legal stays solid, margins hold, and buybacks keep coming with cash behind them. After losing ground this week, the market wants proof, not more promises. RELX reports first-half results July 23.
