RELX PLC Stock Today: £1.5bn Buyback, AI Growth Engine and 2026

As of 8 December 2025, RELX PLC (NYSE: RELX; LSE: REL) sits in that awkward space investors both love and hate: fundamentals are strong, but the share price has been punished.

The stock’s autumn correction has brought the ADR down close to its 52‑week low, even as management reaffirms guidance, underlying revenue keeps growing across every division, and the company completes a £1.5 billion share buyback with another programme queued up for early 2026. ^[1]

This piece walks through the latest news, 2025 results, AI strategy, buybacks, analyst ratings and model-based forecasts to frame where RELX stands right now.

Where RELX stock trades now

On the US market, RELX ADRs recently changed hands around $40.32, down fractionally on the day and not far above their 1‑year low of $39.31. The 1‑year high is $56.33, so the stock remains well below the peaks seen earlier in 2025. ^[2]

MarketBeat’s latest snapshot highlights: ^[3]

50‑day moving average: about $43.65
200‑day moving average: about $48.44
Current ratio: 0.47
Quick ratio: 0.42
Debt‑to‑equity: 2.55
Beta: 0.88 (less volatile than the broader market)

In other words, RELX today trades below its medium‑ and long‑term moving averages, with a solid but leveraged balance sheet and a relatively defensive volatility profile.

A new Seeking Alpha note published two days ago argues that, even after a 20%+ price decline since August, RELX is only a “Hold” because the valuation is still elevated versus peers, despite underlying revenue growth of about 7%. ^[4]

That tension between a premium multiple and high‑quality earnings is at the core of the current debate.

2025 results and trading update: fundamentals still trending up

First‑half 2025: strong growth and fatter margins

RELX’s first‑half 2025 results, released on 24 July, painted a picture of a mature but still steadily expanding information‑services platform: ^[5]

Revenue: £4,741m (vs £4,641m a year earlier), underlying growth +7%
Adjusted operating profit: £1,652m, underlying growth +9%
Adjusted operating margin: improved to 34.8% (from 34.1%)
Adjusted EPS: 63.5p, +10% at constant currency
Cash flow conversion: 100% (up from 95%)
Net debt / EBITDA: 2.2x
Interim dividend: 19.5p (up 7% year‑on‑year)

Management emphasised that growth quality is improving: faster‑growing businesses like Risk, Legal and analytics‑heavy digital tools now carry more weight, while lower‑growth print has shrunk further.

October 2025 trading update: AI‑driven growth in every division

The 23 October 2025 trading update confirmed that momentum extended into the first nine months of the year: ^[6]

Underlying revenue growth year‑to‑date:+7%
Risk: +8%
Scientific, Technical & Medical (STM): +5%
Legal: +9%
Exhibitions: +8%

Management again guided to “another year of strong underlying growth” in revenue and adjusted operating profit, along with strong EPS growth at constant currency. ^[7]

Key strategic points in that update:

Across the group, growth is being driven by AI‑enabled analytics and decision tools, built on “leading content and data sets” plus increasingly powerful AI. ^[8]
In Risk, strong demand for financial crime compliance, digital fraud and identity solutions and enhanced insurance analytics continues to support high‑single‑digit revenue growth. ^[9]
In STM, databases, tools and electronic reference products are growing strongly, helped by a pipeline of new AI‑powered tools and solid growth in primary research submissions. ^[10]
In Legal, the standout is Lexis+ AI and Protégé, RELX’s generative‑AI‑driven legal platforms, which are driving double‑digit growth in law‑firm and corporate segments as usage scales. ^[11]
In Exhibitions, the RX business reported 8% underlying revenue growth as in‑person events normalise and new digital offerings deepen customer engagement. ^[12]

An earnings‑call recap from November also flagged a 7% increase in underlying revenue for the first nine months of 2025, with the company reiterating its full‑year outlook. The ADR price dipped about 1.7% after that call, more in line with broader market moves than any change in the RELX story. ^[13]

Business mix: digital, recurring and global

A December 2025 company overview highlights how different RELX looks today compared with a decade ago: ^[14]

Format: about 84% electronic, 12% face‑to‑face (largely exhibitions)
Revenue type: roughly 54% subscription, 46% transactional
Geography: around 60% North America, 20% Europe, 20% Rest of World

That combination of digital delivery, high subscription content and diversified geography makes RELX’s earnings more predictable than many cyclical peers.

Capital returns: £1.5bn buyback completed and another programme on deck

On 5 December, RELX disclosed that it has completed its 2025 share buyback programme, repurchasing 39.5 million shares for a total cost of £1.5 billion. ^[15]

The company also announced:

A new non‑discretionary buyback of £250 million to run from 2 January to 6 February 2026
Timing deliberately set ahead of the full‑year 2025 results, scheduled for 12 February 2026 ^[16]

In the first‑half results, RELX had already confirmed that £1.0bn of the £1.5bn 2025 buyback was executed by 30 June, with the remainder to be completed by year‑end. ^[17]

Taken together with a 7% uplift in the interim dividend, RELX is returning substantial capital to shareholders while still funding acquisitions (three deals in H1 2025 totalling £262m) and maintaining investment in AI and data assets. ^[18]

Who is buying RELX? Institutional flows

Recent 13F‑based alerts from MarketBeat show SCS Capital Management and other institutional investors adding to RELX in 2025, while earlier in the year ABC Arbitrage SA boosted its stake by over 40%. ^[19]

Across these filings, MarketBeat estimates that around 15% of shares are held by hedge funds and other institutional investors, underscoring steady professional interest but leaving plenty of float in retail and non‑US hands. ^[20]

Analyst views: mostly bullish, but valuation is under scrutiny

Street ratings

Different data providers paint a broadly constructive picture:

StockAnalysis.com lists RELX with an average analyst rating of “Strong Buy”, with no Sell or Strong Sell ratings in the past year. ^[21]
MarketBeat’s latest breakdown counts one Strong Buy, four Buy and one Hold rating, for an overall “Buy” consensus. ^[22]
A Simply Wall St valuation piece argues that the London‑listed shares (ticker: REL) are around 28% undervalued, with an estimated fair value of £42.28 versus a then‑current price of £30.28. The article notes an analyst price target of £44.18, modestly above their DCF‑derived fair value. ^[23]

That’s the bullish side: a high‑quality compounder whose recent pullback may have created upside to intrinsic value.

Blogger and research‑platform opinions

Independent research platforms are more split:

A November Seeking Alpha article titled “RELX: Price Correction Represents A Buying Opportunity” framed the stock as a Buy, arguing that AI innovation across RELX’s portfolio justifies a premium multiple and that shares remain undervalued against peers after the correction. ^[24]
A newer December note from another Seeking Alpha contributor, “RELX: Downside As Expected, Still A ‘Hold’”, took the opposite tack, maintaining a Hold rating and cautioning that, even after a 20%+ decline since August, the valuation still looks demanding relative to growth. ^[25]

So while the sell‑side remains broadly positive, more valuation‑sensitive commentators are clearly wrestling with how much to pay for RELX’s mix of stability and AI upside.

Price targets and model‑based forecasts

Beyond traditional analysts, multiple data and quant platforms publish numerical forecasts for RELX. These are not guarantees – just models – but they help map the range of expectations.

12‑month targets

Fintel: For the US OTC line RLXXF, Fintel reports an average one‑year price target of $55.04, based on a collection of analyst forecasts, with a range from $0.61 to $77.40 (the extreme low reflects outlier data). The same page lists a “projected stock price” of $55.04 by 18 November 2026, described as roughly 18.7% above the baseline price used in their model. ^[26]

Given the current ADR price around $40, that target implies meaningful upside if earnings keep compounding as expected – though, again, these are model outputs rather than promises.

Longer‑dated and algorithmic forecasts

Stockscan.io projects an average 2027 price target of $56.00 for the RELX ADR, with a high of $59.43 and a low of $52.57. Based on a recent reference price of $40.54, Stockscan calculates that as roughly 38% upside by 2027. ^[27]
CoinCodex’s near‑term forecast is more muted, suggesting RELX could dip about 0.65% to around $40.06 by 4 January 2026, consistent with a short‑term sideways pattern after the recent sell‑off. ^[28]
WalletInvestor’s machine‑learning model for RLXXF sees a positive long‑term trend, with January 2026 projections that have the stock rising from an implied $41.40 open to $42.96 close for that month (a 3.6% monthly gain) and multi‑year estimates that extend up to around $45.8 in its longer‑term table. ^[29]

All of these services should be treated as scenario generators, not as advice. Their value is in illustrating the range of plausible paths rather than pinpointing what RELX “should” be worth.

The AI and data thesis: why investors pay a premium

RELX’s appeal rests less on spectacular growth and more on a durable, compounding machine built on proprietary data, analytics and now generative AI.

Some pillars of that thesis:

Embedded, high‑switching‑cost products in legal research, scientific publishing, risk analytics and insurance pricing make customers deeply dependent on RELX’s platforms. ^[30]
The revenue base is largely digital and recurring – ~84% electronic delivery and majority subscription – which tends to support higher margins and lower cyclicality. ^[31]
AI is not a bolt‑on story; RELX has been integrating machine learning and now generative AI into its tools for years. The trading update points to AI‑enhanced fraud detection, identity verification and insurance models in the Risk division, next‑generation AI‑powered tools for researchers in STM, and Lexis+ AI plus Protégé in Legal. ^[32]
Exhibitions add a cyclical kicker as global events normalise, with RX reporting 8% underlying growth and investing in data‑rich digital extensions around its shows. ^[33]
Financially, RELX combines rising margins, 100% cash‑flow conversion, solid dividend growth and aggressive buybacks – all while maintaining investment‑grade metrics. ^[34]

A TIKR research note from mid‑November summed up the takeaway: steady underlying growth across every division, rising operating profit and consistent cash generation create a stable platform for 2026 and beyond, even if the market occasionally forgets how boringly reliable the business has become. ^[35]

Key risks: valuation, leverage and regulation

None of this means RELX is risk‑free, especially at a premium multiple.

Valuation risk

With a P/E around 25–26 and a P/E/G ratio of about 3.2, RELX still trades at a premium to many traditional publishers or business‑services names, even after the recent pullback. ^[36]
The December Seeking Alpha “Hold” thesis rests on the idea that such a multiple leaves limited room for disappointment if growth slows or if the broader market de‑rates high‑quality compounders. ^[37]

Balance‑sheet and liquidity

The group’s debt‑to‑equity ratio of 2.55 and net debt / EBITDA of 2.2x are perfectly manageable for a stable, cash‑generative business, but still mean RELX is not immune to higher interest costs or tighter credit markets. ^[38]
Low current and quick ratios underline that RELX runs a lean working‑capital profile and depends on ongoing cash generation rather than a big buffer on the balance sheet. ^[39]

Regulatory and technology risk

RELX’s own forward‑looking statements repeatedly flag:

Evolving regulation around data privacy, AI usage and intellectual property, particularly for STM and Legal
Competitive pressure in information and analytics markets
Potential disruption from new AI entrants or shifts in how customers pay for and consume research content ^[40]

Because RELX’s edge is deeply tied to its data assets and algorithms, any changes in how those can be collected, processed or monetised would matter.

So is RELX stock a buy after the 2025 sell‑off?

The honest answer is: it depends what you’re optimising for.

For quality‑focused, long‑term investors, the investment case looks intact:

Underlying revenue growth of ~7%, with every major division growing
Expanding margins and strong cash conversion
A business mix tilted toward digital, subscription and AI‑enhanced analytics
Demonstrable shareholder returns via a £1.5bn buyback, rising dividends and another £250m buyback scheduled for early 2026 ^[41]
Consensus analyst ratings firmly in Buy/Strong Buy territory and several valuation models pointing to upside over a 12‑ to 24‑month horizon ^[42]

For valuation‑sensitive or shorter‑term traders, the picture is more nuanced:

The stock still trades on a premium multiple, with some commentators arguing that even after a 20%+ drawdown the risk/reward is balanced rather than asymmetric. ^[43]
Model‑based services like CoinCodex show a near‑term bias toward sideways‑to‑slightly‑down moves in the next few weeks, even if the longer‑term slope is up. ^[44]
Macro conditions, rates and sentiment toward AI‑and‑data names could easily overshadow RELX‑specific fundamentals for stretches of time.

In practical terms, RELX today looks like a high‑quality compounder temporarily marked down by broader market dynamics, with a credible AI story and strong capital‑return policy — but still not a classic “deep value” play.

References

RELX PLC Stock Today: £1.5bn Buyback, AI Growth Engine and 2026–2027 Forecasts After the Sell-Off