Legal & General (LGEN) Share Price Today: Dividend Yield Near 9% as Ford Deal and UK Budget Shape Outlook

Legal & General Group Plc’s share price hovered around 246p today, 27 November 2025, after a sharp rally, leaving its dividend yield near 9%. Here’s the latest on LGEN’s price, dividend, Ford pension deal, ETF update, and how the UK Autumn Budget could affect investors.

Legal & General share price on 27 November 2025

Legal & General Group Plc (LSE: LGEN) ended today’s London session broadly flat after a strong mid‑week run.

Share price (close, 27 November 2025): c. 246p (HL quote: sell 245.8p, buy 246.0p) ^[1]
Market cap: around £13.7–13.8bn, based on London Stock Exchange and broker data ^[2]
Move today: roughly +0.2%, consolidating after Wednesday’s jump
52‑week high: about 266p, reached in early February 2025 ^[3]

Yesterday (Wednesday 26 November), LGEN rose 1.87% to £2.46, outperforming the FTSE 100, which gained 0.85%. Trading volume of 20.4m shares ran slightly ahead of the 50‑day average, and the stock still sits around 8% below its 52‑week high. ^[4]

Taken together, today’s muted move looks like a pause for breath after that rally, with the stock trading in the mid‑240s and the broader market digesting a major UK budget.

Today’s fresh news: ETF NAV update and a calmer tape

1. L&G UK Gilt 0–5 Year UCITS ETF: NAV update

The only direct Legal & General RNS on 27 November 2025 is a routine but relevant funds announcement.

Legal & General UCITS ETF PLC reported new net asset value data for the L&G UK Gilt 0–5 Year UCITS ETF: ^[5]

Date of valuation: 26 November 2025
Shares in issue: 32,130,423
Total NAV: £305.16m
NAV per share:9.498 GBP

This is normal housekeeping rather than market‑moving news, but it matters in context:

It confirms continued scale in L&G’s fixed‑income ETF book, an increasingly important part of the Asset Management (LGIM) division. ^[6]
Short‑dated gilt ETFs are a popular parking spot for cautious UK savers and institutions as they digest the new tax environment after the Autumn Budget.

2. Market mood after the Autumn Budget

Broader UK equity sentiment is still being driven by Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget, delivered yesterday (26 November).

Reuters and City A.M. report that the Budget amounts to roughly a £26bn tax “raid”, with higher overall tax take, changes affecting landlords, pensions and wealthier households, and cuts to the cash ISA tax‑free allowance to £12,000. The Office for Budget Responsibility now expects the tax burden to climb to over 38% of GDP by 2030, a record high. ^[7]

For Legal & General, this backdrop is a double‑edged sword:

On one side, tighter fiscal policy and higher taxes on investment income can dampen retail risk appetite.
On the other, persistent concerns about state provision in retirement often push more people towards private pensions, annuities and investment products – L&G’s core markets.

Retail investor interest: SIPP and dividend chatter

A new Motley Fool UK piece published today, “SIPP growth made simple: build for retirement with FTSE 100 dividend shares,” highlights how long‑term investors are using FTSE 100 dividend stocks inside SIPPs to build retirement wealth via compounding. ^[8]

The article focuses on:

Building a diversified basket of high‑yield FTSE 100 names
Letting dividends reinvest over decades inside tax‑advantaged wrappers like SIPPs

Although this feature discusses several stocks rather than only Legal & General, it reinforces a theme that’s been recurring in recent coverage of LGEN:

Over the last few months, commentators have repeatedly flagged Legal & General’s unusually high dividend yield – often quoted around 8.5–9.2% – as one of the most generous in the FTSE 100. ^[9]

That powerful yield is a major reason why income investors keep the stock on their radar, especially in tax‑efficient accounts like SIPPs and Stocks & Shares ISAs – even after the Budget’s less friendly treatment of savers.

Strategic backdrop: PRT deals, buybacks and “top‑end” earnings growth

While 27 November hasn’t brought big new deals, today’s share price sits on top of some major 2025 developments that are still very much in play.

1. The £4.6bn Ford pension buy‑in – biggest UK deal of 2025

On 27 October 2025, L&G announced completion of two buy‑ins totalling £4.6bn with the Ford Hourly Paid and Ford Salaried Contributory Pension Funds. ^[10]

Key points:

It’s the largest UK pension risk transfer (PRT) transaction announced in 2025, and L&G’s second‑largest buy‑in ever. ^[11]
The deal secures benefits for over 35,000 Ford scheme members.
It takes global PRT volumes for 2025 to around £11bn year‑to‑date, in line with the company’s growth ambitions. ^[12]

This is strategically important:

It underlines L&G’s dominant position in bulk annuities, a capital‑intensive but high‑return business. ^[13]
It showcases the synergy between L&G’s asset management and Institutional Retirement arms, something the group increasingly presents as its competitive edge.

2. A steady stream of pension risk transfer deals

Ford wasn’t a one‑off. In recent months L&G has also:

Completed a £96m buy‑in with the Cosworth Racing Limited Pension Fund, securing benefits for more than 1,000 members ^[14]
Agreed a £1.6bn buy‑in with the BP Pension Fund and an ~£800m buy‑in with the Honda Group UK Pension Scheme earlier in the year ^[15]

Reinsurance industry coverage suggests that L&G’s 2025 PRT volumes could help set the stage for a £1tn global market over the next decade, with the firm strongly positioned as a leading player. ^[16]

3. Half‑year results: “excellent six months”

In H1 2025 results, released in early August, CEO António Simões described the period as an “excellent six months,” with: ^[17]

Core operating EPS up 9% year‑on‑year, at the top end of the 6–9% target range
Continued growth across Institutional Retirement, Retail, and Asset Management
Strong capital ratios, with a high Solvency II coverage (exact figure varies by source but remains comfortably above regulatory requirements)

These numbers laid the groundwork for what came next.

4. 23 October trading update: targeting the top of guidance

At an investor “Retail Deep Dive” on 23 October 2025, L&G gave a trading update that remains crucial context for today’s valuation: ^[18]

The group said it expects full‑year 2025 core operating EPS growth at the higher end of its 6–9% range
It reported about £11bn of PRT volumes written or under exclusivity so far in 2025
Private markets AUM at LGIM reached around £71bn, generating incremental fee income
Management set out new long‑term ambitions for the Retail division, expecting:
- Workplace defined contribution margins to double over time
- Retail DC and annuity assets to contribute over 40% of cumulative asset‑management revenue targets by 2034

In short, management is signalling confidence in earnings growth even as the group reshapes itself.

Capital returns: big dividends and buybacks

Legal & General’s appeal today is not only about growth – it’s also about cash back to shareholders.

1. Dividend yield: among the fattest in the FTSE 100

Across multiple data providers, LGEN’s trailing dividend yield is sitting in the high‑single‑digit range:

CompaniesMarketCap estimates a TTM yield of about 8.6% as of today ^[19]
Hargreaves Lansdown research points to a prospective yield around 8.4% over the next 12 months ^[20]
DividendMax and other specialist sites peg “dividend yield today” close to 9% ^[21]

Motley Fool UK and other commentators have repeatedly highlighted this as one of the highest yields in the FTSE 100, while questioning how sustainable such a high payout is if growth disappoints. ^[22]

2. Share buybacks and the £5bn capital return story

Earlier in 2025, L&G announced a £500m share buyback, part of a plan to return over £5bn to shareholders over three years following the sale of its US life business and a broader strategic refocus. ^[23]

Key elements:

Sale of the US protection business to Meiji Yasuda for around £1.8bn, alongside Meiji taking minority stakes in L&G’s US PRT arm and in L&G itself ^[24]
Proceeds helping to fund buybacks plus dividend growth while strengthening the balance sheet
Management positioning L&G as a leaner group focused on Institutional Retirement, Asset Management and UK retail savings & protection

For today’s investor, that means LGEN’s total shareholder return profile is heavily driven by:

High ordinary dividends
Substantial buybacks
Potential for further special distributions if disposals continue

Leadership and governance: key people moves in 2025

Several senior appointments and changes are also shaping the story behind today’s ticker.

1. CFO transition at year‑end

In October, L&G confirmed that Chief Financial Officer Jeff Davies will step down at the end of 2025 to join Resolution Life as CFO in March 2026. ^[25]

Andrew Kail, currently CEO of Institutional Retirement, will become Group CFO on 1 December 2025
Davies has been in the role since 2017; the change comes as Simões intensifies the group’s strategic overhaul

Investors generally scrutinise CFO changes closely, but the company has opted for an internal successor with deep retirement‑business experience, which can be seen as reassuring given how central PRT and annuities are to L&G’s thesis.

2. New senior hires in people, strategy and reinsurance

Recent appointments include:

Emma Holden as Chief People Officer, joining from Man Group and taking a seat on the Group Management Committee ^[26]
Andy Sinclair in a new strategy and investor relations role, starting end‑January 2026 ^[27]
Donna Cowell as Head of Reinsurance, UK Protection for L&G’s Retail business, strengthening expertise in how protection risks are laid off to the reinsurance market ^[28]
Gareth Mee as CEO of Institutional Retirement, effective 1 December 2025, replacing Kail as he moves up to Group CFO ^[29]

This reshuffle aligns with Simões’ push to simplify the group, deepen its retirement and asset‑management focus, and upgrade leadership in people and risk functions.

Risks and headwinds: what’s worrying the bears

Despite the chunky dividend and big deals, not everyone is bullish on LGEN.

1. RBC’s persistent ‘underperform’ rating

RBC Capital Markets has been one of the more cautious voices:

In August 2025, it reaffirmed an “underperform” rating, cutting its price target to 200p and pointing to “headwinds aplenty” following H1 results ^[30]
On 3 November 2025 RBC nudged its target up to 210p but kept the stock at underperform, citing concerns about competition and capital demands in the UK pension‑risk‑transfer market ^[31]

Even after the target raise, that implies modest upside from today’s ~246p level, underlining that at least one major broker still sees the risk/reward as unattractive compared with peers.

2. Competitive and regulatory pressure in PRT

RBC and other commentators worry that:

The UK PRT market, while large, is increasingly competitive, with rivals such as Phoenix and Aviva vying for big deals and margins pressure. ^[32]
Regulatory capital requirements could tighten further, especially after the latest UK stress tests, which highlighted the resilience – but also the complexity – of life insurers’ balance sheets. ^[33]

L&G’s response has been to scale up, sharpen risk selection, and leverage its Blackstone private‑credit partnership to source higher‑return assets for annuity portfolios. ^[34]

3. The UK Budget and CEO’s warning shot

Well before yesterday’s Budget, Simões warned that aggressive tax changes on savers could be bad news for pension participation and investment sentiment. ^[35]

With the Autumn Budget now confirmed as a significant tax hike, there are real questions about:

Whether higher tax on dividends and investment income could deter retail investors from equity‑based saving
How reduced net returns for savers might affect flows into DC pensions, ISAs and other wrappers in which L&G products compete

At the same time, the growing gap between state provision and retirement needs may push more people to seek private solutions, potentially offsetting some of the drag.

How does today’s picture look for long‑term investors?

Putting it all together, 27 November 2025 finds Legal & General in an interesting position:

Positives

High income: Yield near 9% puts LGEN firmly in the FTSE 100 high‑yield club, attractive to income‑focused portfolios. ^[36]
PRT leadership: Landmark deals like the £4.6bn Ford buy‑in and a busy pipeline of pensions transactions support the narrative of sustainable, fee‑rich annuity growth. ^[37]
Earnings guidance: Management still aims for top‑end EPS growth in 2025 within a 6–9% band, backed by strong H1 results and solid capital. ^[38]
Capital return programme: A multiyear £5bn capital‑return plan, including a £500m buyback, amplifies total yield. ^[39]

Risks

Macro and policy uncertainty: The Autumn Budget’s £26bn tax raid and record‑high tax burden forecast could weigh on UK risk assets and retail investor confidence. ^[40]
PRT competition and capital intensity: L&G’s core business is large, complex and capital‑hungry, making it vulnerable if pricing shifts or regulators tighten the rules. ^[41]
Broker scepticism: Persistent ‘underperform’ ratings, especially from RBC, show that not all analysts are convinced the high yield fully compensates for these risks. ^[42]

For now, the market seems to be balancing those forces: today’s small move around 246p suggests investors are content to collect the income and watch how the strategy and the post‑Budget environment play out.

Important note

Nothing in this article is personal investment advice. It’s a news and analysis overview based on publicly available information as of 27 November 2025. Anyone considering investing in Legal & General Group Plc should do their own research and, if needed, consult a regulated financial adviser.

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