London, March 17, 2026, 16:49 GMT
London Stock Exchange Group shares rose on Tuesday, with the stock quoted at 8,846 pence bid and 8,848 pence offer at 1625 GMT, after the company disclosed another tranche of purchases under the £3 billion buyback announced last month. The broader FTSE 100 was also higher, but LSEG’s move left the stock up about 1% on the day. 1
The daily repurchase notices matter because they give investors an early read on how aggressively LSEG is using the buyback, a central part of management’s answer to a steep share-price slide, activist pressure from Elliott Management and worries that generative AI could erode parts of its data business. The group also published its AGM notice on Tuesday for a shareholder meeting on April 23, setting up the next public test of the board’s capital-allocation plans and strategy. 2
Analysts still lean heavily positive. On its consensus page updated March 16, LSEG said 16 analysts rated the stock a buy, with no holds or sells, and put the average target price at 12,065 pence against a March 13 closing price of 8,746 pence. 3
Tuesday’s buyback filing showed LSEG purchased 343,251 shares on March 16 at a trading-volume-weighted average price of 8,736.31 pence, following 344,841 shares bought on March 13 at 8,699.64 pence in a filing released a day earlier. Across those two sessions, the company spent just under £60 million. 4
A separate regulatory filing on Monday showed Chief Financial Officer Michel-Alain Proch received 11,277 shares when a restricted award vested and sold 5,304 of them at £85.567768 each to cover tax, social security and dealing costs. In UK filings, PDMR is shorthand for a person discharging managerial responsibilities. 5
The buyback was launched alongside stronger annual results. LSEG said last month that 2025 total income rose 7.1% and forecast 2026 organic constant-currency growth of 6.5% to 7.5%, while executives argued the group’s proprietary datasets should prove resilient even as investors debate how quickly AI could reshape market data and analytics. 6
Frederick Kerr-Smiley, an analyst at Ninety One, told Reuters on Feb. 26 he had been “keen for them to do a chunky buyback”. JPMorgan analysts said the company’s message on momentum should help sentiment and clear some of the fears of AI disruption that had weighed on the shares. 7
But the support is not unconditional. Stephen Yiu, chief investment officer of the Blue Whale growth fund, said after the results that “we want growth” and warned Elliott could turn more forceful if LSEG does not deliver over the next few quarters. 8
That is also the competitive backdrop. LSEG is increasingly judged against data and market-infrastructure peers such as Deutsche Boerse and S&P Global, not just as the owner of a stock exchange. Reuters Breakingviews wrote in February that LSEG traded around European exchange multiples but still at a discount to U.S. information-services rivals, leaving buybacks, margins and the AI narrative central to the valuation debate as the April 23 AGM approaches. 9
