London, July 2, 2026, 19:05 BST
- Reckitt Benckiser Group plc (LON:RKT) ended the day at 5,128p. Shares gained 2.81%. The FTSE 100 (INDEXFTSE:UKX) was up 1.67%.
- Reckitt’s shares rose 140p, putting about £0.89 billion on its equity value based on the current voting share count, though trading volume was light at 47% of its 65-day average.
- Reuters said a St. Louis jury cleared Reckitt’s Mead Johnson unit in a preterm baby formula lawsuit, after London markets shut.
- Deutsche Bank (ETR:DBK) lowered its Reckitt price target to 5,400p from 5,430p and maintained a Hold. That gives the stock about 5% implied upside to Thursday’s close.
Reckitt Benckiser Group plc (LON:RKT) tacked on almost £0.9 billion in equity value Thursday, a big swing higher for a stock still off 18% this year and trading more than 21% under its January peak. Volume didn’t follow the jump, with 999,020 shares traded—well below the 65-day average of 2.12 million, MarketWatch data showed.
That’s the number investors will care about. Reckitt outperformed the FTSE 100 by 1.14 points, but traded at less than half its usual volume. This looks more like a risk adjustment than a full re-rating ahead of half-year results later this month.
| July 2 market check | Reckitt | FTSE 100 / context |
|---|---|---|
| Close | 5,128p | 10,652.87 |
| Daily move | up 2.81% | up 1.67% |
| Outperformance | beat by 1.14 pct pts | — |
| Volume | 999,020 shares | 47% of Reckitt’s 65-day average |
| 5-day move | up 6.24% | — |
| YTD move | down 17.98% | — |
After the close, legal headlines could move shares again when trading resumes. Reuters, via London South East, said at 18:13 BST that a St. Louis jury found Mead Johnson’s formula for preterm babies didn’t cause a child’s severe bowel disease, the company said. The report noted Mead Johnson, which makes Enfamil, and Abbott Laboratories NYSE:ABT, which makes Similac, face nearly 1,000 similar lawsuits.
The legal risk is still an issue since Mead Johnson stays in Reckitt’s mix, even as the company tells investors to focus on the health and hygiene lines. Back in April, Reuters said Reckitt was still weighing what to do with Mead Johnson and that litigation risk was still linked to the business.
| Share-base math | Figure | Market read-through |
|---|---|---|
| Issued shares | 674.0 mln | Latest RNS number, June 30 |
| Treasury shares | 39.0 mln | No voting rights |
| Total voting rights | 635.1 mln | Used for shareholder disclosures |
| Value of Thursday’s 140p rise | £0.89 bln | Uses voting share base |
| Equity value at 5,128p | £32.57 bln | On voting-share number |
Reckitt said in its latest RNS that it now has 674,005,752 issued ordinary shares and 38,950,759 shares held in treasury, with total voting rights down to 635,054,993. The voting number shrank after a £1 billion buyback, which in its third tranche grabbed 11.1 million shares at an average price of £48.55, the company said.
Broker nerves linger. Deutsche Bank’s Tom Sykes dropped his price target to 5,400p from 5,430p and stuck with a Hold, data from TipRanks showed. The new target sits just 272p higher than Thursday’s finish.
Some of the caution traces back to Reckitt’s recent update. The company in April reported 1.3% like-for-like net revenue growth for Core Reckitt in the first quarter, missing the 2.9% analyst forecast collected by the company and reported by Reuters. CEO Kris Licht blamed soft seasonal demand and Europe for the slow quarter, but left 2026 like-for-like revenue guidance for the core business unchanged.
Cost risk remains on the table. In June, Licht told Reuters NEXT Europe that Reckitt is “just at the beginning” of seeing inflation hit consumers and that some effects were “a bit of a delay.” Reuters
Reckitt plans to report 2026 half-year results on July 29. Investors will hear the next official word on margins, core sales and whether Reckitt has new plans for buybacks.
