London, April 24, 2026, 12:05 BST
- RELX stuck to its 2026 forecast, citing a robust kickoff in each of its four business segments.
- The company kicked off a fresh £350 million buyback tranche, set to run from April 23 through May 22.
- Anthropic and Freshfields are teaming up, the two said Thursday, intensifying the race in legal AI.
RELX PLC kept its full-year outlook steady and announced a new £350 million share buyback, aiming to reassure investors following a choppy period for legal and data names unsettled by worries that artificial intelligence might disrupt parts of their business.
Timing is key here. The London-listed information and analytics group is touting gains from its own AI-enabled products to shareholders, even as investors keep probing if newer AI tools might eat into the value of its proprietary legal, risk and research data.
The discussion reignited Thursday as Anthropic and law firm Freshfields announced a partnership to build AI tools targeting legal research, drafting, contract review, and internal workflow tasks. Meanwhile, Thomson Reuters Chief Technology Officer Joel Hron told Reuters the market’s shifting gears—moving past AI trials toward “embedding it into day-to-day workflows at scale.” Reuters
RELX slipped 0.45% to 2,671/2,672 pence in Friday’s delayed AJ Bell data, following a Thursday close of 2,684 pence. AJ Bell pegged the company’s market cap at £47.59 billion.
RELX reported a solid start to the year across its Risk, Scientific, Technical & Medical, Legal and Exhibitions units, pointing to robust underlying revenue and profit growth along with strong new sales. The company’s underlying figures exclude currency shifts, acquisitions, disposals, print revenue, and specific exhibition timing effects, a method intended to present investors with a clearer read on business performance.
The company stuck to its outlook for solid underlying revenue and adjusted operating profit growth in 2026, along with strong growth in adjusted earnings per share on a constant-currency basis. Constant currency strips out the impact of exchange-rate fluctuations.
RELX reported ongoing double-digit growth for its Legal segment, citing strong momentum in law firms and corporate legal operations. The company credits adoption of Lexis+ with Protégé, an AI-driven research and analytics platform featuring an “agentic” legal assistant, for the gains. This agentic tech can independently handle more complex tasks than a typical chatbot, while remaining within a controlled software environment. Relx
Rob Hales at Morningstar noted RELX offered “no first-quarter numbers” and left its guidance language unchanged. His fair value estimate stays at 4,200 pence. Hales described the stock as “deeply undervalued,” but pointed out it’s been swept up in the AI-driven selloff hitting information services. Morningstar
This £350 million buyback, announced in a U.S. filing, slots into RELX’s existing £2.25 billion repurchase plan targeting 2026. It’s the latest in the sequence—another £350 million tranche wrapped up on April 22. J.P. Morgan Securities plc will run the programme separately from RELX. Shares acquired will head to treasury, kept off the open market and held by the company.
RELX’s capital return tops last year’s payout. Back in February, the company said it had put £1.5 billion into buybacks in 2025, notched up £9.59 billion in revenue, and posted adjusted operating profit at £3.34 billion. For 2026, it’s aiming to ramp up buybacks to £2.25 billion. Chief Executive Erik Engstrom, speaking at the time, credited AI with speeding up product launches and adding new features.
It’s not just Anthropic making moves. Thomson Reuters, which owns Westlaw, and Wolters Kluwer are in the mix too, both pushing legal information and workflow tech. Shares of those two, plus RELX, took a hit back in February, with Reuters reporting a sharp drop right after Anthropic rolled out plug-ins targeting legal and other specialist work.
Still, the update wasn’t entirely without caveats. RELX skipped first-quarter figures, while its Exhibitions arm noted a few Middle East events being rescheduled. The company also highlighted risks—data-use rules, shifts in intellectual property, cyber threats, geopolitics, and competition—as possible variables for future results.
RELX is pitching AI as a growth engine, not just something to worry about. The real question: can solid sales in its Legal, Risk, and scientific research businesses keep investor jitters in check as professionals weigh jumping to newer AI tools?
