LONDON, March 18, 2026, 20:13 GMT
Legal & General Group Plc closed out Wednesday at 249.60 pence, slipping 0.6%. The insurer now sits roughly 10.7% under its Feb. 23, 52-week high. That decline was slightly less severe than the FTSE 100, which dropped 0.9%.
This is crucial for L&G, which has been working to regain investor trust by streamlining its group setup, expanding its buyback, and maintaining dividend growth. Last week, though, results came in below market expectations, and that’s put fresh question marks on whether L&G can really deliver robust cash returns while sticking to stricter capital constraints.
Solvency II measures the capital insurers have on hand to survive a major hit. On March 11, L&G reported a 6% gain in core operating profit, reaching 1.623 billion pounds, while core EPS moved up 9% to 20.93 pence. The Solvency II coverage ratio dropped to 210% from last year’s 232%.
The company expects core EPS growth in 2026 to hit the upper edge of its 6% to 9% three-year target range. It’s also projecting shareholder returns of 2.4 billion pounds over the coming year.
Chief Executive António Simões, in the results statement, pointed to “meaningful progress” as L&G moves to reshape its business. Simões highlighted a 1.2 billion-pound buyback—the largest the group’s ever done—along with projected dividend growth, saying these would push planned returns for the coming year up to 2.4 billion pounds. Legal General Group
Dan Coatsworth at AJ Bell pointed out that the 1.623 billion-pound profit landed a notch under the 1.65 billion-pound consensus, which took the shine off the buyback announcement. Still, he described the shortfall as “not catastrophic.” That’s part of the reason shares remain far off their February highs. AJ Bell
Chief Risk Officer Chris Knight sold 150,983 shares at 2.519015 pounds apiece after exercising a 2021 performance-share award, according to a regulatory filing out Wednesday. The same document also shows a separate sale of 100,000 shares at 2.5141 pounds per share on Tuesday.
L&G on Wednesday announced it has released its 2025 annual report. Last week, the company kicked off the initial stage of its 1.2 billion-pound buyback program. Up to 600 million pounds are set to be bought back and cancelled by Sept. 18.
Aviva—always the uncomfortable benchmark for L&G. Since Simões took the helm at the beginning of 2024, L&G shares haven’t really budged, Reuters noted. That’s against Aviva’s roughly 44% climb and a 34% jump for the FTSE 100.
Still, risks for the stock persist. Britain’s benchmark index dropped Wednesday, with surging oil prices stoking fresh concerns about inflation and interest rates. Reuters last week noted that L&G, a major player in UK government debt and credit, was watching the Middle East conflict’s market effects carefully.
