LONDON, July 1, 2026, 20:02 BST
- London Stock Exchange Group plc (LON:LSEG) gained 2.33% to £83.52. The FTSE 100 slipped 0.18%.
- The stock finished 1.3% under the average price LSEG paid for buybacks in Q1. Shares are still down 24% from their 52-week high.
- LSEG said global announced M&A totaled $2.8 trillion in the first half, a record and up 48% from last year.
- LSEG’s H1 2026 results webcast is set for July 30.
London Stock Exchange Group plc (LON:LSEG) ended Wednesday up 2.33% at £83.52. The FTSE 100 slipped 0.18% to 10,478.34. London traded on its usual 8:00-16:30 BST schedule and had already closed by the time of this report.
The move wasn’t only a one-day pop. Shares ended up within 1.3% of the £84.59 average LSEG paid for the 12.8 million shares it bought back in Q1. That’s a minor marker as LSEG says it aims to hand back £3 billion in buybacks by February 2027.
| Price marker | Level | Read-through versus Wednesday close |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday close | 8,352p | — |
| Q1 buyback average | 8,459p | Close is 1.3% under |
| 52-week high | 10,990p | Sits 24.0% below the high |
| May consensus target | 12,131p | Target is 45.2% above close |
LSEG’s own deal data showed global M&A announced in the first half rose 48% to $2.8 trillion, the highest since the group began tracking in 1980. The number of deals slid 9% to 24,000, hitting a six-year low. That mix matters for LSEG, as its investor pitch is tied to high-value data, analytics, and market infrastructure, not just what happens on the exchange.
London Stock Exchange Group’s Q1 numbers gave investors a sharper breakdown of its businesses. Income excluding recoveries rose 9.8% on an organic constant-currency basis. Markets division was up 15.5%, Data & Feeds climbed 7.3%, Workflows added 2.9%. CEO David Schwimmer said LSEG data engagement hit a “record” and more than 150 clients are connected or getting onboard to the MCP server for AI-ready data. LSEG
| LSEG Q1 line | Organic constant-currency growth |
|---|---|
| Workflows | 2.9% |
| Data & Feeds | 7.3% |
| FTSE Russell | 8.8% |
| Risk Intelligence | 10.5% |
| Markets | 15.5% |
| Total income excl. recoveries | 9.8% |
LSEG is still trading with an AI overhang. Back in February, Reuters said the shares dropped almost 13% in a day after concerns surfaced that big language models like Anthropic’s Claude could threaten data firms. News that Elliott Management had taken a stake helped push the stock back up, with a 27% gain by June 11. Still, shares are 23% under their 2025 high.
Reuters analysts summed up the debate. UBS’s Michael Werner said AI monetisation is a “‘show me’ story”. Deutsche Bank’s Benjamin Goy described LSEG as “pretty cheap”. Stephen Yiu, Blue Whale Growth Fund CIO, said: “I don’t believe the risk … is minimal.” Reuters
This is the valuation debate. Reuters said LSEG is trading at about 18 times forward earnings, which puts it about 30% below where Moody’s Corp (NYSE:MCO) trades and about 40% under MSCI Inc NYSE:MSCI. But that’s still above FactSet Research Systems Inc (NYSE:FDS). The market’s rewarding the buyback and first-quarter growth, but so far isn’t pricing in any clean AI rerating.
LSEG’s May consensus page listed a 12,131p target and a 9,186p close on May 7. That would be about a 45% upside from Wednesday’s close, but the targets haven’t been updated since. Shares have traded since then.
LSEG will report its H1 2026 numbers on July 30, with a webcast set for 10:00 UK time. Schwimmer and CFO Michel-Alain Proch are on the call. The story is whether the April forecast sticks: 6.5%-7.5% growth in organic constant-currency total income, ex-recoveries, and 2026 aimed at the top half.
