RELX PLC Stock (REL) This Week: Buyback Update, Analyst Upgrades, and the Week-Ahead Catalysts (Updated 14 December 2025)

Updated: Sunday, 14 December 2025 (markets closed; last close Friday, 12 December 2025)

RELX PLC (LSE: REL, NYSE: RELX) heads into the new week with a familiar “quality compounder” narrative—steady cash generation, a subscription-heavy model, and a growing analytics footprint—now back in focus after a burst of broker activity and a fresh capital returns headline.

Over the past several days, the story has been driven less by new operational disclosures and more by capital allocation (a completed buyback and a new programme pencilled in for early 2026), plus a pair of high-profile broker calls—one upgrading RELX, the other lifting a target to fresh highs. Add a major central-bank week ahead in Europe and the UK, and RELX investors have a clean checklist of catalysts to watch.

RELX share price snapshot: where the stock ended the week

RELX shares closed at 3,016p on Friday, 12 December 2025 on the London Stock Exchange. ^[1]

Using daily closes for the week, RELX finished up about 1.5% from Monday’s close (2,972p) to Friday’s close (3,016p)—a modest rebound after a choppy start to the week. ^[2]

For U.S. investors in the ADR (NYSE: RELX), prices were hovering around $40 into the end of Friday. ^[3]

The biggest company headline: RELX completes its 2025 buyback and lines up a new one

RELX’s most concrete “hard news” catalyst in recent days has been capital returns.

The company announced it completed its 2025 share buyback programme, purchasing 39.5 million shares for £1.5 billion. ^[4]
RELX also disclosed a new non-discretionary share buyback programme of up to £250 million, scheduled to run from 2 January 2026 to 6 February 2026, with UBS (London branch) executing the programme. ^[5]
The timetable is notable: the buyback window is positioned ahead of RELX’s full-year results, which are scheduled for 12 February 2026. ^[6]

Why the market cares: buybacks at scale can mechanically support EPS over time and often act as a “floor” narrative for high-quality, cash-generative companies—especially when the stock has recently de-rated and management signals confidence through continued repurchases.

A smaller but timely corporate update: “Additional listing” tied to Sharesave

RELX also filed a regulatory notice for an additional listing: an application for a block listing of 60,000 ordinary shares linked to the RELX PLC Sharesave Plan 2023, with admission expected on 17 December 2025. ^[7]

This is not a fundamental demand-shifter on its own (60,000 shares is tiny relative to RELX’s overall share count), but it is a dated, near-term item that can show up on traders’ “week ahead” calendars.

Broker activity: Deutsche Bank upgrades RELX; JPMorgan lifts its target

Analyst actions often matter most when they cluster—and RELX saw exactly that.

Deutsche Bank: upgraded to Buy, but with a lower target price

Deutsche Bank upgraded RELX to Buy (from Hold/Neutral), while cutting its price target to 3,700p from 4,072p, framing the move as an opportunity created by the recent share price weakness and arguing that AI-related fears look overstated for certain B2B/platform models. ^[8]

That combination—upgrade + target cut—sounds paradoxical until you translate it: the analyst became more positive on expected return from today’s price, but simultaneously marked down their estimate of fair value (often due to discount-rate assumptions, peer multiples, or more conservative near-term expectations).

JPMorgan: top-pick momentum, and a target raised to 5,070p

Midweek, Reuters reported RELX shares jumped after JPMorgan highlighted RELX as one of its top picks in the media sector, arguing European media stocks had been held back by “misplaced concerns.” ^[9]

In the broker-rating flow, Alliance News also reported JPMorgan raised RELX’s price target to 5,070p (from 4,920p) and reiterated an overweight stance. ^[10]

The spread between Deutsche Bank’s 3,700p and JPMorgan’s 5,070p neatly captures the current debate: is RELX “expensive quality that’s finally normalising,” or “durable growth that is being mispriced after a pullback”?

Fundamentals refresher: what RELX looks like as a business right now

RELX is frequently described as a “defensive growth” name, but the business mix explains why.

From RELX’s December 2025 investor overview materials:

H1 2025 underlying revenue growth:+7% ^[11]
H1 2025 underlying adjusted operating profit growth:+9% ^[12]
H1 2025 adjusted EPS growth (constant currency):+10% ^[13]
H1 2025 interim dividend growth:+7% ^[14]

And on revenue quality/mix (H1 2025):

84% electronic (with 12% face-to-face) ^[15]
54% subscription vs 46% transactional ^[16]
Geography: 60% North America, 20% Europe, 20% rest of world ^[17]

Management also reiterated a constructive tone on the year, stating it continued to see “positive momentum” and expected another year of strong underlying growth in revenue and adjusted operating profit, alongside strong growth in adjusted EPS on a constant-currency basis. ^[18]

This is the spine of the bull case: a mostly digital, mostly recurring model, with strong cash generation that can fund both investment (including AI-enabled products) and shareholder returns.

Macro backdrop: rate cuts are back in the plot

Even for a company as “non-cyclical” as RELX, interest rates matter—mostly through valuation (discount rates) and market style (growth vs value rotations).

This week delivered two macro signals that investors are actively pricing:

The U.S. Federal Reserve cut rates by 25 bps on 10 December and signalled a more cautious path ahead. ^[19]
In the UK, a Reuters poll reported economists expect the Bank of England to cut rates to 3.75% on 18 December. ^[20]

Why this matters for RELX specifically: in easing cycles, investors often re-rate high-quality, recurring-revenue businesses because future cash flows are discounted less aggressively. The counterweight is that if cuts are associated with deteriorating growth, markets sometimes rotate toward shorter-duration defensives and away from anything priced for perfection. RELX sits awkwardly—and sometimes advantageously—between those styles.

RELX stock forecast: what analysts are projecting now

Across mainstream consensus aggregators, the broad picture is:

The analyst consensus leans bullish (“Strong Buy” on some platforms), with an average 12‑month price target in the mid‑4,000p range and a wide dispersion from the high‑3,000s to the low‑5,000s. ^[21]

In practice, that dispersion usually reflects different assumptions about:

sustainable medium-term organic growth,
margin trajectory (especially as AI investment ramps),
FX effects (USD-heavy revenue translated to GBP),
and what multiple a “content + analytics” platform deserves in 2026.

For the ADR, U.S.-side target ranges similarly imply substantial upside versus the current ~$40 level, though exact targets vary by coverage universe and methodology. ^[22]

The week ahead: what to watch (15–19 December 2025)

Next week’s RELX setup is less about company-specific earnings news and more about calendar catalysts and sentiment drivers:

1) UK rate decision week (BoE on Thursday)

With the Bank of England policy decision due 18 December, UK large caps can see quick style rotations—especially if the vote split and guidance surprise. That matters even for RELX, because positioning in “quality defensives” tends to shift with rate expectations. ^[23]

2) Sharesave-related listing date (Wednesday)

RELX’s additional listing admission expected 17 December is small, but it’s a dated corporate event that can show up in market plumbing and headlines. ^[24]

3) Follow-through from broker notes

After a JPMorgan target hike and a Deutsche Bank upgrade, the next driver is often “second-order” coverage—other houses reaffirming, trimming, or matching moves. Analyst follow-through can influence marginal buyers, especially into year-end when liquidity thins.

4) A quiet but important countdown: buyback and results timing

The market now has a clear runway:

Buyback begins 2 Jan 2026
FY2025 results on 12 Feb 2026 ^[25]

That calendar can shape positioning into year-end: some investors prefer to own ahead of buyback windows; others wait for results and guidance.

Key risks and pressure points investors are debating right now

A RELX article in late 2025 is incomplete without naming the three big recurring arguments:

AI disruption risk vs AI opportunity
RELX sells decision tools and analytics to professionals; generative AI could be a distribution opportunity (productivity, better search, better workflow) or a pricing/competitive risk if customers believe they can substitute away. Brokers are explicitly debating whether AI fears are “overblown” for B2B/platform models. ^[26]

Regulation and data governance
A data-and-analytics business lives under the long shadow of privacy, licensing, and sector regulation. This tends to be a slow-burn risk, but it can reprice quickly if a specific market (credit/risk, legal, or scientific content) faces new constraints.

FX and rate sensitivity
With a large North American revenue base, FX can meaningfully affect GBP-reported numbers—good or bad—without changing underlying demand. ^[27]

Bottom line: RELX enters the new week with sentiment momentum, not new fundamentals

Into mid-December, RELX’s near-term narrative is being set by capital returns and analyst sentiment, with macro policy acting as the amplifier.

The completed £1.5bn buyback and the new £250m programme create a steady shareholder-return drumbeat. ^[28]
The Deutsche Bank upgrade and JPMorgan target hike reset the conversation from “why did this stock fall?” to “is the pullback an entry point?” ^[29]
The BoE decision (18 Dec) is the most obvious week-ahead macro catalyst for UK-listed equities—and therefore for RELX’s near-term tape. ^[30]

RELX rarely trades like a drama series, but the coming week offers enough calendar sparks—rates, listings, year-end positioning—that the stock could stay livelier than usual for a business built on recurring revenue and methodical execution.