LONDON, March 24, 2026, 19:50 GMT
RELX PLC stock was quoted around 2,440 pence in delayed London pricing on Tuesday, roughly 1% below the previous close, a day after the British information group launched a new £350 million share buyback. The tranche runs from March 23 to April 22 and follows a £450 million programme completed on March 20. 1
The timing matters. RELX is leaning on cash returns while investors keep asking how far generative AI could cut into data, analytics and legal-information businesses. Earlier this year, an AI-led selloff hit RELX and peers Thomson Reuters and Wolters Kluwer after Anthropic unveiled a legal plug-in for Claude. 2
RELX said J.P. Morgan Securities will run the non-discretionary buyback — a repurchase of the company’s own shares — independently under preset rules. The stock it buys will be held in treasury, meaning it stays with the company rather than the market. 3
Monday’s announcement is part of the £2.25 billion that RELX plans to deploy on buybacks in 2026. With its February results, the group said it still expected good-to-strong underlying revenue growth this year, with adjusted operating profit growing faster than revenue. 4
Management has kept arguing AI should help as well as hurt. Chief Financial Officer Nick Luff told Reuters in February that RELX’s data and “proprietary algorithms” help deliver the judgments and interpretations customers pay for. 5
Some analysts have tried to draw the same distinction. JPMorgan’s Daniel Kerven said in February that “Relx is not a software business that is going to be eaten by AI,” while Morningstar’s Rob Hales said he was surprised by how sharply investors had marked down the sector. 6
Even with the new buyback, the stock is still well below its 52-week high of 4,183 pence, based on delayed pricing data. That helps explain why Tuesday’s move looked cautious even as the broader FTSE 100 rose 0.7% on gains in energy shares. 1
But buybacks do not answer the core bear case. If lawyers, bankers, insurers or researchers shift more routine work to cheaper AI tools, growth in RELX’s analytics products could slow; the next scheduled company update is due on April 23. 2
