LONDON, March 18, 2026, 20:13 GMT
Legal & General Group Plc shares ended Wednesday at 249.60 pence, down 0.6%, leaving the insurer about 10.7% below the 52-week high it touched on Feb. 23. The drop was milder than the FTSE 100’s 0.9% fall. 1
That matters because L&G is trying to win back confidence with a simpler group structure, a larger buyback and steady dividend growth. But last week’s results missed market forecasts, reviving doubts over whether generous cash returns can sit alongside tighter capital metrics. 2
Solvency II is the regulatory measure of how much capital an insurer holds to withstand a severe shock. L&G said on March 11 that core operating profit rose 6% to 1.623 billion pounds, core EPS climbed 9% to 20.93 pence and the Solvency II coverage ratio stood at 210%, down from 232% a year earlier. 2
The company said 2026 core EPS growth should land at the top end of its 6% to 9% three-year target range. It also said planned returns to shareholders over the next year would total 2.4 billion pounds. 2
Chief Executive António Simões said in the results statement that L&G had made “meaningful progress” reshaping the business. He said the 1.2 billion-pound buyback, the biggest in the group’s history, together with guided dividend growth, would lift planned returns over the next year to 2.4 billion pounds. 2
AJ Bell’s Dan Coatsworth said the 1.623 billion-pound profit figure came in just below the 1.65 billion-pound market forecast, overshadowing the buyback, though he called the miss “not catastrophic”. That helps explain why the shares are still trading well below February’s peak. 3
A regulatory filing on Wednesday showed Chief Risk Officer Chris Knight sold 150,983 shares at 2.519015 pounds each after exercising a 2021 performance-share award. The same notice showed he sold another 100,000 shares at 2.5141 pounds on Tuesday. 4
L&G also said on Wednesday it had published its 2025 annual report. That followed the start last week of the first tranche of its planned 1.2 billion-pound buyback, with up to 600 million pounds due to be repurchased by Sept. 18 and cancelled. 5
Rival Aviva remains the awkward comparison. Reuters reported that L&G shares have been broadly flat since Simões took over at the start of 2024, versus gains of about 44% for Aviva and 34% for the FTSE 100. 6
But the setup can still turn against the stock. Britain’s benchmark index fell on Wednesday as higher oil prices revived inflation and rate worries, and Reuters reported last week that L&G was monitoring the market impact of the Middle East conflict closely as a large investor in British government debt and credit markets.
