Relx (RELX) AI Stock Analysis

• Market Cap: $63.40B
• Dividend Yield: 2%
• Average Volume (3M): 5.09M
• Price to Earnings (P/E): 27.2
• Beta (1Y): 0.45
• Revenue Growth: 5.32%
• EPS Growth: 6.06%
• Country: US
• Employees: 34,580
• Sector: Industrials
• Sector Strength: 72
• Industry: Publishing
• EPS (TTM): 0.80
• Shares Outstanding: 1,801,459,500
• 10 Day Avg. Volume: 5,388,880
• 30 Day Avg. Volume: 5,088,451
• PEG Ratio: 4.01
• Price to Book (P/B): 23.30
• Price to Sales (P/S): 5.87
• P/FCF Ratio: 19.71
• Enterprise Value/Market Cap: 0.86
• Enterprise Value/Revenue: 5.69
• Enterprise Value/Gross Profit: 8.76
• Enterprise Value/Ebitda: 16.02
• 1Y Price Target: $47.20
• Price Target Upside: 17.47% Upside
• Rating Consensus: Moderate Buy
• Number of Analyst Covering: 1
• EPS Forecast (FY): 1.91
• Revenue Forecast (FY): $13.75B

• Rating: 69 Neutral
• Price Target: $39.00 ▼(-2.94% Downside)
• Action: Reiterated Date: 02/18/26
• Date: Action: Reiterated 02/18/26

Strong fundamentals (high margins and very strong cash generation) and a positive earnings outlook with substantial capital returns are the main supports. The score is held back by weak technicals (price below all major moving averages with negative momentum) and balance-sheet leverage/equity decline, while valuation is reasonable but not clearly cheap.

Positive Factors

Cash generation & conversion

Near-100% cash conversion and multi‑billion free cash flow are durable strengths: they fund dividends, large buybacks, capex and selective M&A while reducing reliance on external financing, supporting capital returns and reinvestment over the medium term.

High margins and sustained profitability

Consistently high gross and net margins reflect a content-and-analytics business with low incremental costs and recurring revenue. Margin durability supports cash flow resilience, ability to invest in product development and competitive pricing power over multiple quarters.

Content + AI competitive moat

Deep, curated data assets combined with embedded AI-driven workflows create high switching costs and differentiated offerings in Legal and Risk. This structural shift to analytics/SaaS increases recurring revenue and makes disruption by generic competitors harder over time.

Negative Factors

Elevated leverage and reduced equity

Material gross debt and higher debt-to-equity reduce financial flexibility and increase sensitivity to interest rates or macro shocks. With equity decline in 2025, the capital structure leaves less room for error and constrains the pace of inorganic investment.

Slowing top-line growth / mature market

A shift toward slower or slightly negative reported revenue indicates maturity and greater reliance on margin expansion or buybacks to drive EPS. Sustaining growth will require successful product-led adoption and conversion of large addressable but gradual markets.

Structural decline in print-related revenues

A multi-year secular decline in print revenue forces reallocation of resources to digital and analytics. Transition costs and portfolio drag can weigh on reported growth and create timing risk as new higher-value products scale over several years.

Relx Business Overview & Revenue Model

Company Description

RELX PLC provides information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers in North America, Europe, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Risk; Scientific, Technical & Medical; Legal; and Exhibitions. The Risk segment offers information-based analytics and decision tools that combine public and industry specific content with technology and algorithms to assist clients in evaluating and predicting risk. The Scientific, Technical & Medical segment provides information and analytics that help institutions and professionals to progress in science and advance healthcare. The Legal segment provides legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics that help customers in decision-making, as well as increases the productivity. The Exhibitions segment is involved in the events business that combines face-to-face with data and digital tools to help customers learn about markets, source products, and complete transactions. The company was formerly known as Reed Elsevier PLC and changed its name to RELX PLC in July 2015. The company was incorporated in 1903 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

How the Company Makes Money

RELX primarily makes money by selling subscription and license access to specialized content, databases, and analytics platforms used by institutions and professionals, complemented by transactional revenues and event-related fees. 1) Subscription and licensing (largest driver across most segments): - STM (Elsevier): Generates revenue largely from multi-year subscriptions and licensing agreements with universities, research institutes, corporate R&D, and government customers for access to scientific journals, books, and research platforms. It also sells workflow and analytics tools that support research discovery, management, and evaluation, typically under recurring license or subscription models. - Legal (LexisNexis Legal & Professional): Earns revenue from recurring subscriptions to legal research databases and practice/analytics tools purchased by law firms, corporations, and public-sector legal organizations. Pricing is commonly seat-based or usage-tiered under term contracts. - Risk (LexisNexis Risk Solutions): Sells access to data assets and analytics delivered via platforms and APIs to banks, insurers, payments firms, telecoms, and public sector entities. Revenues are generated through recurring subscriptions and contracted services, as well as usage-based fees tied to transaction volumes (e.g., identity verification checks, fraud screening calls, risk scores). 2) Transactional and services revenue: - Risk: A meaningful portion can be usage/transaction-driven (per-search, per-transaction, or volume-based API pricing), where customer activity levels directly influence revenue. - Legal and STM: Additional revenue may come from one-time content purchases, document delivery, training, professional services, and certain database transactions (exact mix varies by product). 3) Author-facing and publishing-related revenues (STM): - Elsevier also earns from publishing-related fees associated with making research outputs available under specific distribution models (where applicable). If specific fee structures or proportions are not publicly detailed for a given product line, null. 4) Exhibitions (RX) revenue: - RX generates revenue by organizing and hosting B2B exhibitions and related digital offerings. Key revenue streams include exhibitor fees for booth space and sponsorships/marketing packages, as well as attendee registration fees for certain events. Revenue levels are influenced by the number and scale of events held, exhibitor demand, attendee participation, and event format (in-person, hybrid, digital). 5) Cross-segment monetization factors: - Data, content, and analytics are monetized through long-term customer relationships and high switching costs, as RELX products are embedded in customers’ workflows (research, compliance, underwriting, legal practice). - Platform delivery (cloud, SaaS, and APIs) supports recurring revenue and enables usage-based pricing, particularly in Risk. Partnerships and major customer channels: null

Relx Financial Statement Overview

Summary

High-quality profitability and cash generation (stable ~64–65% gross margin, ~19–21% net margin, strong FCF and ~99% cash conversion) support a strong operating profile. Offsetting factors are slower/negative reported revenue in 2025 and a more leveraged balance sheet with equity decline, which reduces flexibility.

Income Statement

RELX shows consistently strong profitability: gross margin has held around ~64–65% (2020–2024) and net margin has stayed near ~19–21% (2021–2024). Earnings have generally trended up from 2020–2024, and operating profitability remains solid. The key weakness is growth: revenue growth slowed materially and turned slightly negative in 2025 (annual revenue down ~1.6% vs. 2024), suggesting a more mature top-line profile and potential sensitivity to demand softness.

Balance Sheet

Leverage is the main constraint. Debt has stayed high (roughly £6.5–£7.3B), and debt relative to equity is elevated (about ~1.8–1.9x in 2021–2024, with a much higher level in 2020). Equity also declined notably in 2025 versus 2024, which reduces balance sheet flexibility. Offsetting this, the business generates strong profits relative to equity (high returns on equity in 2021–2024), indicating efficient capital use—but the capital structure leaves less room for error if conditions weaken.

Cash Flow

Cash generation is a clear strength. Operating cash flow and free cash flow have been consistently strong, with free cash flow rising meaningfully from 2023 to 2024 and remaining very high in 2025. Cash conversion is solid: free cash flow was close to net income in 2024 (roughly ~99%), supporting funding capacity for dividends, buybacks, or debt management. The main weakness is some variability over time (notably weaker free-cash-flow growth in 2020 and more modest improvement in 2023), but overall cash flow quality is strong.

Breakdown	Dec 2025	Dec 2024	Dec 2023	Dec 2022	Dec 2021
Income Statement
Total Revenue	9.38B	9.43B	9.16B	8.55B	7.24B
Gross Profit	5.98B	6.13B	5.95B	5.51B	4.68B
EBITDA	3.72B	3.13B	3.31B	3.06B	2.65B
Net Income	2.02B	1.93B	1.78B	1.63B	1.47B
Balance Sheet
Total Assets	14.73B	15.13B	14.92B	15.83B	13.86B
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments	130.77M	119.00M	155.00M	334.00M	113.00M
Total Debt	7.32B	6.54B	6.50B	6.73B	6.17B
Total Liabilities	12.35B	11.63B	11.48B	12.07B	10.63B
Stockholders Equity	2.36B	3.48B	3.46B	3.78B	3.23B
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow	2.79B	2.59B	1.98B	1.97B	1.68B
Operating Cash Flow	2.81B	2.61B	2.46B	2.40B	2.02B
Investing Cash Flow	-810.83M	-575.00M	-569.00M	-859.00M	-384.00M
Financing Cash Flow	-1.99B	-2.06B	-2.06B	-1.33B	-1.61B

Relx Technical Analysis

• Technical Analysis Sentiment: Neutral
• Last Price: 40.18
• 50DMA: Negative
• 100DMA: Negative
• 200DMA: Negative
• MACD: Negative
• RSI: Neutral
• STOCH: Negative

Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For RELX, the sentiment is Neutral. The current price of 40.18 is above the 20-day moving average (MA) of 32.46, above the 50-day MA of 36.14, and below the 200-day MA of 44.61, indicating a neutral trend. The MACD of 0.18 indicates Negative momentum. The RSI at 55.89 is Neutral, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 88.02 is Negative, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Neutral sentiment for RELX.

Relx Peers Comparison

Name	Overall Rating	Market Cap	P/E Ratio	ROE	Dividend Yield	Revenue Growth	EPS Growth
NYT	80 Outperform	$13.03B	32.93	17.55%	0.95%	8.43%	21.38%
WLY	70 Outperform	$1.93B	13.74	20.75%	4.48%	-5.33%	―
RELX	69 Neutral	$63.40B	27.25	90.85%	2.00%	5.32%	6.06%
SCHL	65 Neutral	$872.90M	3.37	-0.37%	2.78%	2.53%	-23.86%
PSO	64 Neutral	$8.21B	20.71	8.86%	2.11%	1.93%	34.40%
Sector *	63 Neutral	$10.79B	15.43	7.44%	2.01%	2.89%	-14.66%