LONDON, March 31, 2026, 17:10 BST
RELX bought back 3.43 million shares between March 23 and March 27, the first week of a new 350 million pound repurchase plan, a company filing showed. At the disclosed prices, the batch was worth about 83.5 million pounds and will be held in treasury, or kept by the company, rather than put straight back into the market. 1
That matters because the LexisNexis owner is only weeks into a promised 2.25 billion pounds of buybacks for 2026, a large cash return plan that comes while investors are still testing how durable growth will be across legal, risk and scientific information markets as AI tools spread. RELX has argued the same technology unsettling the sector should also deepen customer value in its own products. 2
The next readout is close. RELX is due to hold its annual general meeting and publish a trading update on April 23, giving the market a near-term test of whether the momentum it reported for 2025 carried into the new year. 3
The current buyback phase runs from March 23 to April 22 and follows a 450 million pound programme completed on March 20. J.P. Morgan Securities is executing the purchases under preset rules, while RELX said disclosures would come weekly. 2
After the latest week’s purchases, RELX held 35.16 million shares in treasury and had 1.793 billion shares in issue excluding treasury stock. Since Jan. 2, it has repurchased 31.06 million shares, the March 30 filing showed. 1
In February, RELX reported 2025 revenue of 9.59 billion pounds, adjusted operating profit of 3.34 billion pounds and cash conversion of 99%, meaning nearly all of its profit translated into cash. Chief Executive Erik Engstrom said the company’s use of artificial intelligence had been a key driver of growth “for many years to come.”
That line sits at the centre of the debate around the stock. Reuters reported in February that fears about new AI tools deepened after Anthropic launched a legal plug-in, hitting RELX and peers Thomson Reuters and Wolters Kluwer; Chief Financial Officer Nick Luff argued RELX’s constantly updated content and proprietary algorithms gave it an edge. 4
Still, buybacks do not answer the bigger question. Ben Snider, Goldman Sachs’ chief U.S. equity strategist, said in February that near-term earnings would be “important signals of business resilience” across software and data names, but might not erase longer-term AI downside worries. 5
RELX has framed the 2026 repurchases as a response to its “strong financial position and cash flow.” The next chance to see whether investors accept that case comes on April 23.
