RELX Plc
- Open
- 33.70
- Day high
- 34.28
- Day low
- 33.38
- Prev close
- 33.70
- Volume
- 3.0M
- Mkt cap
- $60.4B
- P/E (TTM)
- 11.9
- EPS (TTM)
- $2.88
- P/B
- 19.0
- P/S
- 2.4
- Yield
- 2.70%
- Per share
- $0.92
RELX Plc (RELX) is a Communication Services company listed on NYSE. The stock is down 35% over the past year.
RELX Plc (RELX) financials & analyst ratings
Fundamentals (TTM)
Source: exchange market data + company filings. Figures are trailing-twelve-month or as most recently reported. For informational purposes only — not investment advice.
RELX earnings date, history & EPS estimates
| Report date | EPS est | EPS actual | Surprise | Revenue | Rev. surprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 12, 2026 | $0.85 | $0.79 | -6.7% | $6.5B | -3.3% |
| Jul 24, 2025 | $0.56 | $0.72 | +28.1% | $6.5B | +0.1% |
| Feb 14, 2025 | $0.80 | $0.64 | -19.1% | $6.0B | -7.0% |
| Oct 24, 2024 | $0.77 | $0.66 | -14.5% | $5.9B | -4.0% |
| Apr 25, 2024 | $0.73 | $0.60 | -16.7% | $5.9B | -1.1% |
| Feb 16, 2023 | $0.67 | $0.56 | -16.3% | $5.6B | +4.0% |
| Feb 10, 2022 | — | $0.56 | — | $5.2B | — |
| Jul 26, 2018 | — | $0.45 | — | $4.8B | — |
| Dec 31, 2016 | — | $0.36 | — | $4.5B | — |
| Mar 8, 2016 | — | $0.38 | — | $4.4B | — |
| Mar 10, 2015 | — | $0.37 | — | $4.7B | — |
| Mar 11, 2014 | — | $0.51 | — | $4.9B | — |
RELX Plc company profile
Overview
RELX Plc (LSE:REL) is a British multinational information and analytics company that provides specialized data, analytics, and decision tools to professional and business customers worldwide. Founded in 1903 and formerly known as Reed Elsevier, the company underwent a strategic transformation and rebranded to RELX in 2015 to reflect its evolution from a traditional publisher into a technology-driven information services provider. Today, RELX operates as one of the world's leading providers of information-based analytics across four distinct business segments, serving customers in over 180 countries with a focus on helping professionals make critical decisions in high-stakes environments.
Business
RELX operates in the professional information services industry, providing specialized data, analytics, and decision-making tools across four primary business segments that collectively generate approximately £12 billion in annual revenue. The Risk segment represents the largest division, accounting for roughly 55% of total revenue. This segment provides information-based analytics and decision tools that help organizations evaluate and predict various types of risk. The division includes Business Services (45% of Risk revenue), which offers solutions for financial crime compliance, digital fraud prevention, and identity verification; Insurance services (40% of Risk revenue), providing data and analytics for insurance underwriting and claims processing; and Specialized Industry Data Services (10% of Risk revenue), delivering market intelligence for commodities, aviation, and other specialized sectors. The Scientific, Technical & Medical (STM) segment contributes approximately 25% of total revenue and serves the global research and healthcare communities. This division operates scientific journals and databases, including well-known brands like Elsevier and The Lancet medical journal. The segment provides research publishing services, electronic databases, and analytical tools that help researchers, healthcare professionals, and institutions advance scientific knowledge and improve patient outcomes. The Legal segment generates around 15% of total revenue and provides legal research tools, regulatory information, and business intelligence to law firms, corporate legal departments, and government agencies. The division's flagship products include the Lexis+ platform and the recently launched Lexis+ AI, which uses artificial intelligence to help legal professionals conduct research, analyze cases, and draft documents more efficiently. The Exhibitions segment accounts for approximately 5% of total revenue and organizes trade shows, conferences, and industry events worldwide. This division combines traditional face-to-face events with digital tools and data analytics to help businesses learn about markets, source products, and complete transactions. While historically the smallest segment, Exhibitions has shown strong recovery and growth following pandemic-related disruptions.
Revenue model
RELX operates primarily on a subscription-based business model, with approximately 80% of its revenue coming from recurring sources. The company generates revenue through multiple streams depending on the business segment. In the Risk division, customers pay subscription fees for access to databases, analytics platforms, and decision-making tools. Corporate clients, financial institutions, insurance companies, and government agencies pay for services that help them assess credit risk, prevent fraud, ensure regulatory compliance, and make underwriting decisions. The Legal segment similarly operates on subscription-based pricing, where law firms and corporate legal departments pay annual or monthly fees for access to legal research databases, case law, and AI-powered legal tools. The STM segment employs a hybrid model combining subscription revenues from institutional customers (universities, research institutions, pharmaceutical companies) for database access, along with article processing charges from researchers publishing in open-access journals. The Exhibitions segment generates revenue through booth rental fees, sponsorship packages, and registration fees from event attendees. Several factors influence RELX's profit margins. Positive margin drivers include the company's shift toward higher-value analytics and AI-powered tools, which command premium pricing compared to basic information services. The subscription-based model provides predictable cash flows and high customer retention rates, typically above 90%. Process innovation and automation help control operational costs while revenue grows. The company's specialized expertise in niche professional markets creates pricing power due to limited competition and high switching costs for customers. Margin pressures can arise from increased technology investments, particularly in artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure. Competition from new technology providers and changing customer preferences toward self-service solutions may pressure pricing. Economic downturns can affect customer spending, particularly in the Exhibitions segment, which is more cyclical. Regulatory changes affecting data privacy or professional services industries could require costly compliance investments.
Competitive moat
RELX possesses a moderately strong competitive moat built on several interconnected advantages, though the strength varies across business segments. The company's primary moat stems from its extensive proprietary databases accumulated over decades, particularly in specialized professional domains where data is difficult to replicate. In the Risk segment, RELX has built comprehensive databases of financial, criminal, and identity information that would be extremely costly and time-consuming for competitors to recreate. The company benefits from high customer switching costs, as professionals become deeply integrated with RELX's platforms and workflows. Legal professionals using Lexis+ or researchers relying on Elsevier databases face significant disruption and retraining costs when switching to alternatives. This creates strong customer retention rates typically exceeding 90% across segments. RELX's network effects provide additional defensive strength, particularly in STM publishing where the company's reputation attracts high-quality research submissions, which in turn draws more readers and researchers to their platforms. The scale advantages in data collection and processing allow RELX to offer more comprehensive solutions than smaller competitors. However, the moat faces several challenges. The rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities is democratizing data analysis, potentially reducing the value of RELX's analytical tools. Open-access publishing movements threaten the traditional STM business model. Technology giants like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon possess superior AI capabilities and could potentially disrupt RELX's analytics-focused segments. The Legal segment faces competition from legal technology startups offering more user-friendly interfaces and innovative features. The Exhibitions business has limited moat strength, as event organization requires fewer proprietary assets and faces competition from digital alternatives. Overall, RELX maintains a solid but not impregnable competitive position, with the strongest moats in Risk and STM segments where specialized data and customer relationships provide meaningful barriers to entry.
Risks & safety
RELX demonstrates a moderate margin of safety with mixed financial health indicators that require careful consideration. **Liquidity and Solvency Concerns:** • Current ratio of 0.52 indicates potential short-term liquidity challenges, with current liabilities significantly exceeding current assets • Quick ratio of 0.47 shows limited ability to meet immediate obligations without asset conversion • Cash position of £151 million appears low relative to £7.2 billion in current liabilities • Debt-to-equity ratio of 1.88 reflects substantial leverage, though manageable for a stable cash-generating business • Strong operating cash flow of £3.3 billion and free cash flow of £3.3 billion provide substantial cash generation capabilities **Valuation Metrics:** • P/E ratio of 35.2 suggests expensive valuation relative to earnings • EV/EBITDA of 24.0 indicates high valuation multiples • Price-to-book ratio of 19.6 reflects significant premium to book value • Graham number analysis suggests potential overvaluation at current price levels **Other Considerations:** • 97% cash conversion rate demonstrates efficient working capital management • High return on equity of 55.6% indicates strong profitability • Subscription-based revenue model provides predictable cash flows • Strong market positions in specialized niches offer defensive characteristics
Recent development
Over the past few years, RELX has undergone a significant strategic transformation focused on artificial intelligence integration and shifting toward higher-value analytics solutions. The company has systematically moved away from traditional publishing and information services toward AI-powered decision tools across all business segments. In the Legal division, RELX launched Lexis+ AI in October 2023, representing a major technological advancement in legal research. The platform uses generative artificial intelligence to help legal professionals conduct research, analyze cases, and draft documents. The company subsequently introduced Protégé, a next-generation generative AI legal assistant, demonstrating continued innovation in legal technology. Management reports that the majority of new and renewal sales now come from Lexis+ AI, indicating strong market adoption. The STM segment has similarly embraced AI technology, launching three generative AI-based tools during 2024, including Scopus AI and ClinicalKey AI. These tools help researchers and healthcare professionals analyze scientific literature and make research decisions more efficiently. The division continues to benefit from strong article submission growth, with submissions increasing over 20% and published articles growing 15% in recent periods. The Risk division has focused on expanding its analytics capabilities in financial crime compliance and digital fraud prevention. The company has strengthened its position in Business Services, which now represents 45% of the Risk division's revenue, by developing more sophisticated predictive analytics and real-time decision-making tools. The Exhibitions segment has undergone structural improvements following pandemic-related disruptions, implementing digital tools and achieving a lower cost base while maintaining higher margins. Management expects this segment to operate as a higher value-add, higher growth, and higher margin business compared to pre-pandemic levels. Across all segments, RELX has emphasized continuous process innovation to manage cost growth below revenue growth, while maintaining strong investment in technology infrastructure and AI capabilities.
RELX company profile · for informational purposes only — not investment advice.
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