Episode
RELX Stock: A Great Compounder Fell 38% on AI Fear — and Just Accelerated. Why We Say BUY (H1 2026)
- Published
- Jul 24, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 832
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/charged-alpha-stock-encyclopedia-7819792/episodes/relx-stock-a-great-compounder-fell-38-on-ai-fear-and-just-accelerated-why-we-say-buy-h1-2026/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/charged-alpha-stock-encyclopedia-7819792/relx-stock-a-great-compounder-fell-38-on-ai-fear-and-just-accelerated-why-we-say-buy-h1-2026.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
RELX PLC (RELX) H1 2026 — RELX PLC (NYSE: RELX), the information-and-analytics owner of LexisNexis, Elsevier and its Risk data business, reported strong first-half 2026 results (six months to June 30, reported in GBP): revenue of £4,871m (+7% underlying), adjusted operating profit up 9% to £1,727m as the group margin expanded to 35.5%, adjusted EPS of 68.6p (+11% constant currency), a 7% dividend hike to 20.9p, and £1.75bn of a £2.25bn buyback completed in the half at 98% cash conversion. Crucially, the two divisions the market feared AI would gut both accelerated: Legal (LexisNexis) +10% underlying and STM (Elsevier) +6%, with Risk +8%. Yet the ADR has fallen ~38% over 12 months — from ~$53 to ~$34.41 — as the multiple de-rated from ~31x to ~18x forward earnings on AI-disruption fears sparked by new legal/research AI tools. Our owner-earnings DCF (in £, converted at GBP/USD ~1.34, 1 ADS = 1 ordinary share) lands fair value near £35/share, about $47 per ADR, roughly 35% above the price. Our call: BUY 4/5 — a premium compounder de-rated on a fear its own results refute, aligned with a Strong Buy Street. The honest swing factor is long-run AI durability. Not financial advice. RELX is one of the great quiet compounders — the FTSE-100 information-and-analytics machine behind LexisNexis (Legal), Elsevier (STM), its high-margin Risk data business and RX Exhibitions. For a decade it traded at a rich ~31x earnings and simply kept grinding higher. Then in early 2026 the narrative flipped: powerful new AI tools (including a legal assistant from Anthropic) sparked fears that generative AI would commoditize legal research and scientific search, and the shares de-rated ~38% — the NYSE ADR falling from ~$53 to ~$34.41, roughly 18x forward earnings versus a ~31x history. But H1 2026…