London, March 11, 2026, 13:09 (GMT).
- Legal & General shares were down 5.5% by 1103 GMT after the group missed estimates for full-year profit and reported a lower solvency ratio, despite launching a £1.2 billion buyback. 1
- The company lifted its full-year dividend by 2% to 21.79 pence and set out more than £5 billion of shareholder returns for 2025-2027, including £2.4 billion over the next year. 2
- The results are a key test of CEO António Simões’ overhaul after the stock lagged both Aviva and the FTSE 100 since early 2024. 3
Shares in Legal & General fell more than 5% on Wednesday after the British insurer and asset manager missed expectations on key earnings measures and reported a weaker capital buffer, taking some of the shine off its biggest-ever share buyback. The stock was among the sharpest FTSE 100 fallers in the session. 3
The reaction matters because these results are one of the clearest tests yet of Simões’ effort to simplify L&G, lift returns and restore support for the shares. Reuters reported the stock has been broadly flat since he took over at the start of 2024, compared with gains of about 44% for Aviva and 34% for the FTSE 100. 3
L&G said 2025 core operating profit rose 6% to £1.623 billion and core earnings per share climbed 9%. The firm raised its full-year dividend to 21.79 pence a share and said the buyback, together with dividend growth, would take planned returns to shareholders over the next year to £2.4 billion, part of more than £5 billion targeted for 2025-2027. 2
Investors focused instead on the pro forma Solvency II coverage ratio — the regulatory measure of an insurer’s capital strength — which fell to 210% from 232% a year earlier. By 1103 GMT, Reuters said the shares were down 5.5% after the market absorbed a profit miss and the weaker solvency reading. 2
“In two years, we’ve reshaped the company,” Simões told Reuters, adding L&G was “very comfortable” with the solvency ratio. In the results statement, he said the group had made “meaningful progress in reshaping L&G” and was positioned to tap growing demand for retirement income and long-term investment products. 3
That growth case rests on pensions, retail savings and private markets. L&G wrote £11.8 billion of global pension risk transfer business in 2025 — deals where companies hand pension liabilities to insurers — including £10.4 billion in the UK, while assets under management stood at £1.2 trillion and workplace defined-contribution assets under administration rose 21% to £114 billion. 2
Outside experts were more measured. Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the results had “a few moving parts” and that “a couple of softer areas” had weighed on the stock, while Interactive Investor’s Richard Hunter said the early reaction suggested there was still “more work to do” to win investors back. 4
The risk is that capital strength stays under scrutiny if markets turn rougher or the pension-risk-transfer market gets more competitive. Simões said L&G was monitoring the market impact of the widening Iran conflict and strains in private credit, while Hugh Fairclough, head of financial services at RSM UK, said an “asset-sourcing arms race” was building in the pension market. 3
L&G has already sold its U.S. protection business and Cala, bought Proprium Capital Partners and teamed up with Blackstone as Simões pushes the group toward businesses that use less capital. Wednesday’s share-price drop showed investors still want cleaner proof that the reshaping can lift returns without putting more pressure on solvency. 5
