RELX PLC Stock Near 52‑Week Low: Is the AI‑Data Giant Now a 2026 Buy?

London, 3 December 2025 — RELX PLC (LON: REL, NYSE: RELX), the data and analytics heavyweight behind brands like LexisNexis and Elsevier, is trading near its 52‑week low even as the company reports strong growth from its AI‑driven products and recurring‑revenue platforms.

On the London Stock Exchange, RELX shares recently closed just under 3,000p, after touching a new 52‑week low around 2,976p, far below this year’s peak of 4,205p. ^[1] In New York, the ADR trades around $39–40, also near the bottom of its 12‑month range. TS2 Tech

Despite that slump, RELX is still delivering mid‑single‑digit to high‑single‑digit underlying revenue growth, rising margins and aggressive share buybacks — a strange combination of “quality compounder” fundamentals and “this thing looks sulky on the chart” price action.

Latest RELX stock news as of 3 December 2025

The past week has been unexpectedly busy for what is usually a steady, low‑drama FTSE 100 name. Key updates around RELX PLC stock include:

1. New 52‑week low and weak near‑term momentum

A fresh note from MarketBeat flagged that Relx (LON: REL) hit a new 52‑week low, trading as low as 2,976p before last changing hands around 3,017p on heavy volume. ^[2]

Data from the London Stock Exchange and retail broker feeds show: ^[3]

Latest close (2 December 2025): ~2,997p
Intraday range: roughly 2,989p–3,026p
52‑week range: 2,976p–4,205p

TipRanks estimates RELX’s year‑to‑date performance at about –15%, underperforming broader UK indices despite resilient earnings. ^[4]

Technically, RELX is trading below both its 50‑ and 200‑day moving averages, and some models flag it as “oversold,” which is a polite quant way of saying “investors may have over‑reacted.” ^[5]

2. Total voting rights and capital structure moves

On 1 December 2025, RELX published a Total Voting Rights announcement: ^[6]

Issued ordinary shares: 1,882,973,784
Held in treasury: 58,996,289
Voting rights in issue: 1,823,977,495

This matters for investors tracking index weights, free float, and major shareholding disclosures under FCA rules.

At the same time, RELX has continued to tweak its equity structure via buybacks and employee share schemes:

Additional Listing: application for a block listing of 60,000 ordinary shares linked to the company’s Save As You Earn (SAYE) scheme, with admission expected on 1 December 2025. ^[7]
Transaction in Own Shares: recent RNS filings show a steady stream of repurchases between March and late November 2025, signalling ongoing commitment to capital returns. ^[8]

In short: the share count is creeping down via buybacks, while small block listings offset employee options — classic “mature compounder” capital management.

3. JPMorgan and other institutions quietly adding

Across the Atlantic, a recent SEC filing shows JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its RELX position by 1.1% in Q2, to more than 850,000 ADRs worth around $46 million, with several other institutional investors also raising stakes. ^[9]

MarketBeat data suggests that roughly 15% of the ADR free float is held by institutions, and the tone of recent coverage leans “quality tech‑adjacent compounder with a rich but defendable multiple.” ^[10]

AI‑powered growth: what RELX actually told investors

The market mood may be gloomy, but the company’s own updates sound almost suspiciously upbeat.

October 2025 trading update: growth across all segments

In its 23 October 2025 trading update, RELX reported: ^[11]

Underlying revenue growth YTD:+7%
Risk segment: +8%
Scientific, Technical & Medical (STM): +5%
Legal: +9%
Exhibitions: +8%

Management reiterated that:

Growth is increasingly driven by AI‑enabled analytics and decision tools, particularly in risk, compliance, fraud and identity solutions.
The company expects another year of strong underlying growth in revenue, adjusted operating profit and EPS at constant currency for the full year 2025.

In more human terms: RELX is behaving like a large, disciplined software‑and‑data platform that just happens to be wrapped in a very boring FTSE ticker.

December 2025 investor presentation: margins and scale

The December 2025 investor presentation adds more detail to the story. For 2024, RELX highlights: ^[12]

Revenue: £9.4 billion
Adjusted operating profit: £3.2 billion
EBITDA margin: 39.5%
Adjusted operating margin: 33.9%
Cash conversion: ~97%
Net debt / EBITDA: around 1.8x
Market cap (late November 2025): about £56 billion

The business mix is heavily digital and recurring:

Around 84% of revenue is electronic,
Roughly 54% is subscription‑based,
About 60% of revenue comes from North America, with the rest split across Europe and the rest of the world. ^[13]

For the first half of 2025, RELX reported: ^[14]

Underlying revenue growth: +7%
Underlying adjusted operating profit: +9%
Adjusted EPS at constant currency: +10%
Interim dividend growth: +7%

Management guidance is almost aggressively consistent: another year of strong underlying growth driven by AI‑enhanced tools layered on top of proprietary data and content.

Why is RELX stock falling if fundamentals look strong?

This is the slightly maddening bit for long‑term holders.

Recent third‑party analyses and quant dashboards point to a few overlapping explanations for the share price weakness: Perplexity AI+3TS2 Tech+3TS2 Tech+3

Valuation reset
- RELX traded earlier in 2025 near the top of its historical valuation band, with a price/earnings multiple hovering in the high‑20s to low‑30s.
- MarketBeat data now shows a P/E around 29x and a PEG ratio (price/earnings‑to‑growth) near 2.7 — still firmly in “quality growth” territory, not deep value. ^[15]
Rising leverage optics
- MarketBeat estimates debt‑to‑equity above 2x, while company materials show net debt/EBITDA of roughly 1.8x — acceptable but clearly above the “zero‑debt” levels some investors now prefer. ^[16]
Tech and AI sentiment hangover
- RELX is now frequently described as “AI infrastructure” for lawyers, scientists, insurers and banks — a flattering label when AI hype is roaring, less so when markets rotate into plain‑vanilla cyclicals. TS2 Tech
Mean‑reversion after a long run
- RELX has spent much of the past decade compounding steadily. Some quant screens now flag it as “oversold” or “over‑sold quality,” but many generalist investors simply appear to be taking profits or shifting into higher‑beta names. ^[17]

The result: a high‑margin, cash‑generative, AI‑heavy business temporarily priced as if the story is a little tired.

Analyst forecasts: upside of around 50% from current levels

Whatever the market is worrying about, sell‑side analysts are not especially panicked.

UK‑listed RELX PLC (LON: REL)

MarketBeat’s coverage of the London‑listed shares shows: ^[18]

Consensus rating: Moderate Buy
Analyst split: 3 Buy, 1 Hold (no Sells)
Average 12‑month price target:4,520.67p
Target range: 4,072p – 4,920p
Implied upside:~51% from a current price just under 3,000p

Investing.com, which aggregates a broader group of analysts, is even more bullish: ^[19]

Consensus rating: Strong Buy (11 Buy, 1 Hold, 0 Sell)
Average 12‑month target: about 4,450.9p
Target range: 3,900p – 5,300p
Implied upside: around +49%

TipRanks, meanwhile, describes the London line as “Outperform”, highlighting strong financial performance and positive earnings‑call sentiment, though it warns that the technical picture is bearish and valuation is not cheap. ^[20]

US‑listed RELX PLC ADR (NYSE: RELX)

For the New York‑listed ADR, StockAnalysis classifies RELX as a “Strong Buy”, with two active analyst ratings (one Buy, one Strong Buy) and no active Sell ratings in the last year. ^[21]

Recent commentary from banks such as Barclays, Redburn Atlantic and Goldman Sachs has tended to: ^[22]

Reiterate bullish or upgraded ratings,
Emphasise RELX’s recurring‑revenue model and AI capabilities,
Frame the current drawdown as a valuation reset rather than a thesis break.

In other words, the people whose job it is to be nervously conservative about numbers are mostly still in the “this is a buy” camp.

Business fundamentals: a data and AI engine in four parts

RELX is not a one‑product story; it’s a portfolio of deeply embedded information platforms. The trading update and investor presentation break the business into four segments, each with its own AI twist. ^[23]

1. Risk

Provides AI‑enhanced analytics for financial crime compliance, fraud prevention, digital identity and insurance.
YTD underlying revenue growth of +8% in 2025.
Growth driven by expanding use cases (e.g., KYC, sanctions screening, identity), strong new sales and ongoing data‑set expansion.

This is the quiet engine room: when banks and insurers care more about not being fined or defrauded than about saving a few basis points, RELX is in a good place.

2. Scientific, Technical & Medical (Elsevier)

Powers scientific publishing, databases and analytics platforms used by researchers and institutions.
YTD underlying revenue growth around +5%.
Strong performance in databases, tools and electronic reference products, helped by new product launches and robust research output. ^[24]

The company has already launched an AI‑powered “end‑to‑end researcher solution,” which management says has been well received by customers. ^[25]

3. Legal (LexisNexis & AI legal tools)

This is where the AI story gets spicy:

YTD underlying revenue growth of about +9% in 2025. ^[26]
Growth is driven by legal analytics and AI‑enhanced tools.
Lexis+ AI, the company’s integrated generative AI platform, is seeing strong adoption.
Protégé, described as a next‑generation AI legal assistant, is gaining rapid usage, including a new “Protégé General AI” extension welcomed by customers. ^[27]

Legal work is essentially structured text plus time pressure — exactly the kind of environment where high‑quality AI tools can be both sticky and expensive.

4. Exhibitions

RELX also runs a large exhibitions and events business:

YTD underlying revenue growth of +8%.
Management highlights improved event mix and progress with digital tools for exhibitors and attendees, helping to stabilise what used to be a more cyclical segment. ^[28]

It’s the least obviously “AI‑driven” part of the group, but the digital layer around physical events is becoming a meaningful data asset in its own right.

Valuation and risk: quality on sale or expensive trap?

Valuation snapshot

Pulling together third‑party data: ^[29]

P/E ratio: roughly 29x
PEG ratio: around 2.6–2.7
Dividend growth: mid‑single‑digit to high‑single‑digit (around +7% most recently)
Net debt / EBITDA: about 1.8x

This is not a deep‑value situation. RELX is still valued as a high‑quality, above‑GDP‑growth compounder. But after the share price correction, the multiple has compressed noticeably from 2024–early 2025 levels.

Key risks investors are watching

Based on company disclosures and external analyses, the main risk clusters are: ^[30]

Regulation and data/privacy
- RELX’s value comes from large proprietary datasets. Changes in data‑privacy law, use of personal data, or scientific publishing models could impact growth and pricing power.
AI competition and commoditisation
- While RELX has a moat in proprietary data and domain‑specific tools, the rapid advance of general‑purpose AI could compress pricing in some areas if customers perceive cheaper alternatives.
Leverage and rates
- Net debt is manageable but not trivial. Prolonged high interest rates or a sharp earnings slowdown would make that more uncomfortable.
Exhibitions cyclicality
- The events business, even with digital tools, is still exposed to macro cycles, geopolitical shocks and travel disruptions.
Valuation risk
- Even after the pullback, RELX is not cheap by traditional value metrics. If growth dips from high‑single‑digit to low‑single‑digit, the current multiple could compress further.

What 3 December 2025 means for RELX PLC investors

Put together, the picture as of 3 December 2025 looks like this:

Fundamentals: revenue, profit and EPS are growing in the mid‑ to high‑single‑digits, powered by AI‑enhanced products across risk, legal and scientific segments. Margins are strong and cash conversion is excellent. ^[31]
Balance sheet: modestly leveraged but not reckless; regular buybacks and progressive dividends continue. ^[32]
Market action: the share price is hovering just above a fresh 52‑week low, down around mid‑teens percent year‑to‑date. ^[33]
Analyst view: consensus on both the London line and the ADR is firmly in the Buy / Strong Buy zone, with average 12‑month targets implying roughly ~50% upside. ^[34]

For existing shareholders, this is classic “is the market wrong or early?” territory. For prospective investors, RELX increasingly sits in that strange but interesting category: AI‑driven, high‑margin infrastructure stock temporarily priced like an annoyed utility.

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