London, June 25, 2026, 11:10 BST
- LSEG slipped to 8,076 pence. The FTSE 100 is up 0.3%.
- Shares are 4.5% under LSEG’s average buyback price for the first quarter
- At current prices, £1 billion gets around 560,000 more shares than it did at the Q1 price.
LSEG shares fell 2.5% to 8,076 pence by 10:59 BST Thursday. The FTSE 100 was up 0.3% just after 11 a.m., so LSEG lagged the wider index by around 2.8 points.
LSEG is now paying more than the market price for its own shares. It picked up 12.8 million shares for £1.1 billion in the first quarter, paying an average £84.59. On Thursday, the shares traded 4.5% under that buyback price. The company still plans to return £3 billion to shareholders via buybacks by February 2027, it said.
LSEG could buy about 12.38 million shares for £1 billion at £80.76 each, compared to 11.82 million at the first-quarter average. The same amount of money cancels about 560,000 more shares now. The market is valuing the stock under the company’s recent capital return price.
LSEG set a £750 million limit on the initial tranche after its results. The group said it will wrap up buying by May 29 at the latest and the stock bought will be cancelled.
LSEG picked up 174,158 shares at a volume-weighted average of £92.2099 on June 9, which was the last reported day of a later tranche. Just over two weeks later on Thursday, the price was down 12.4%. After cancelling the shares, LSEG had 488.3 million voting shares.
FTSE Russell announced a new product Thursday, saying it will work with China Construction Bank Corp (HKG:0939) on an offshore yuan green bond index. Stephanie Maier, the group’s head of sustainable, said, “deepening cross-border investment opportunities remains a key priority.” The statement did not mention expected fees or asset levels for the index. LSEG
The next test for the stock is if AI distribution starts to bring in paid revenue. Total income, excluding recoveries, was up 9.8% in the first quarter. LSEG’s MCP server had over 150 customers connected or joining. “It’s one thing to have usage, it’s another to start charging people,” UBS Group AG (SWX:UBSG) analyst Michael Werner said. Deutsche Bank AG (ETR:DBK) analyst Benjamin Goy said the stock looks “pretty cheap compared to other data companies.” Reuters
LSEG got cut to neutral by Rothschild & Co Redburn on June 18, with the target price moved down to £104 from £120. The team wrote that around 30% of group EBITDA could come under pressure in its base case, mostly from AI risk in Data & Analytics. Shares dropped over 4% on the day.
As of June 25, consensus data had 17 out of 19 analyst calls at buy or outperform for the stock, with one hold and one sell. The 12-month median target stood at 12,000 pence, the lowest was 10,400 pence. Both targets are above Thursday’s close, pointing to upside of 48.6% and 28.8%.
