Latest news with #Relx
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Tax trauma for growth: Labour is squeezing the life out of Britain's flatlining economy, says ALEX BRUMMER
Trade deals are flooding through the White House pipeline, with US-Japan done and rising optimism on a European accord. In Britain, Keir Starmer will be reannouncing his deal with India. It should eventually be good for whisky and car exports, but hackles will be raised by national insurance-free short-term contracts for Indian staff in the UK. The biggest lacuna is the failure of Starmer to secure binding accords on better access for Britain's financial and professional services, the UK's most successful export. Despite Rachel Reeves' Mansion House musings of last week, the Square Mile is unhappy and concerned. Lloyds Bank boss Charlie Nunn warned against further taxes on the financial sector in the Budget. Lloyds' profit bonanza of £2billion in the second quarter of the year will have the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who has proposed an additional banking levy, straining at the leash. The danger of further attacks on the City and wealth was highlighted by Goldman Sachs chairman David Solomon this week. All that stands between the UK's flatlining economy and recession is the services sector, which softened sharply in July. The S&P purchasing managers' index, among the most reliable forward indicators, sits at a two-month low at 51, barely above the tipping point into recession. The damage to confidence from a summer of speculation about taxation will be considerable. As S&P notes, employment numbers in July decreased at the fastest pace since February, still being driven by the employers' national insurance hike. It is a Labour myth that increasing taxes on firms, rather than individuals, protects workers. The Government has dug itself a big financial hole with trade union giveaways and big NHS and welfare spending. Taxing its way to fiscal stability can only hamper output. Missing in action There is a puzzling disconnect between Britain's overall economic performance and that of some of our better-run companies. The Prime Minister likes to rattle on about the UK becoming an AI champion with little recognition that in £72billion Relx, the UK's seventh-largest listed company, we already have a champion user. Relx is not helped very much by its well-remunerated chief executive Erik Engstrom who behaves like a hermit and has no public profile. The bosses of public companies, like it not, have a responsibility to explain themselves to all stakeholders. In the case of Engstrom, the best to be expected is boilerplate about success and incomprehensible language which possibly, given its lack of insight, is AI-generated. Among his latest gems is talk of 'leveraging customer understanding to combine leading content and data sets with AI and other technologies'. What that means is anyone's guess. What we do know is that revenues and underlying profit are accelerating and income from 'risk' – that means cyber protection – and legal data are the stars, and are up 9pc. It is terrific that Relx is doing so well and the FTSE 100 recognises that. Given Relx's expertise in deploying artificial intelligence and outperformance, any thoughts about relisting in New York should be extinguished immediately. Changing channels Carolyn McCall at ITV has one of the trickiest gigs in Britain. She runs a company at the heart of the UK's creative sector in a global industry dominated by behemoths such as Netflix and Sky owner Comcast. Under her, and in the face of some investors' scepticism about costs, ITV Studios has become a production powerhouse, supplying terrestrial rival the BBC as well as streaming services. Future growth is expected from Rivals season 2 for Disney, The Reluctant Traveler for Apple TV and Gomorrah for Sky. ITVX, which was greeted by shareholders with outright disdain, but broke even two years ahead of expectation, expects £760million of income next year and has concluded a partnership deal with Disney. No longer is ITV's future as dependent on often volatile linear, terrestrial TV advertising. Despite all of this and a 13.3 per cent rise yesterday to 87.8p, the shares still languish. Time for a reality check.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Top exec at publishing giant Relx held talks with investors to ditch UK listing for New York
A senior executive at publishing giant Relx has admitted it has had conversations with investors about moving its listing to New York. But Nick Luff, chief financial officer at the £72billion group, denied there were any imminent plans to relocate. The US is one of the largest markets for a firm that provides products for lawyers, scientists, medical professionals and bankers. It also owns medical journal The Lancet and an exhibitions arm, which runs book convention Comic Con. Relx reported a pre-tax profit of £1.52billion for the first half, up from £1.45billion in 2024. Sales rose 7 per cent to £4.7billion on the back of strong demand for products that use generative AI.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Relx resumed with a Buy at Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs resumed coverage of Relx (RELX) with a Buy rating and 4,714 GBp price target The company is well positioned to continue leading the shift towards more sophisticated data analytics tools across key end markets, while also utilizing its vast proprietary data and IP competitive advantage to benefit from developments in Generative AI, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The application of Generative AI to drive further acceleration in product innovation and thus top-line growth, the firm added. Easily identify stocks' risks and opportunities. Discover stocks' market position with detailed competitor analyses. Published first on TheFly – the ultimate source for real-time, market-moving breaking financial news. Try Now>> See today's best-performing stocks on TipRanks >> Read More on RELX: Disclaimer & DisclosureReport an Issue Relx upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays Relx price target raised to 4,220 GBp from 4,150 GBp at Barclays Relx (RELX) Announces Q2 Dividend: Read On for Important Dates Relx PLC's Earnings Call Highlights Robust Growth and Strategic Progress Relx price target raised to 3,909 GBp from 3,516 GBp at Deutsche Bank
Telegraph
28-02-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
This FTSE 100 stock isn't overvalued – even after its 150pc gain
Questor is The Telegraph's stockpicking column, helping you decode the markets and offering insights on where to invest. A fear of missing out on capital gains can lead investors to overpay for shares during a bull market. Indeed, the FTSE 100's recent surge to a record high is likely to prompt increased buying activity among investors when, in theory, it should mean they are becoming more inclined to take profits on existing positions. After all, buying shares at higher prices is typically less likely to produce attractive returns than purchasing them at lower prices. Investors should avoid becoming complacent on the FTSE 100's outlook. The index has a bright future but also has a long history of boom and bust and it is impossible to accurately forecast either outcome ahead of time. Therefore, focusing on company fundamentals and obtaining a margin of safety remain as important as ever. Of course, some large-cap stocks continue to offer scope for generous gains even after delivering stunning capital growth. Relx, for example, has surged by 150pc since we tipped it as a 'buy' almost seven years ago. In doing so, it has soundly beaten the FTSE 100 by 135 percentage points, with further outperformance of the wider index likely to be ahead over the coming years. The company, which provides data analysis tools to enable better decision-making across a wide variety of sectors, released encouraging full-year results earlier this month. Sales rose by 7pc, while earnings were up by 9pc versus the prior year as its profit margins continued to increase, due in part to the implementation of further cost-saving measures. At the operating level, for example, the company's profit margin rose by 80 basis points to 33.9pc. A strong financial performance allowed the company to announce a £1.5bn share buyback programme for the current year. This follows £1bn of repurchases made in the previous year and could have a positive impact on its share price performance. Similarly, five acquisitions totalling £195m were made in the previous financial year, which could catalyse its bottom line growth rate in future. With its net interest costs covered 9.6 times by operating profits last year, the company has scope to further bolster its financial prospects through M&A activity despite its elevated net gearing ratio of 183pc. Of course, Relx's share price surge over recent years means it trades on an extremely high price-to-earnings ratio of 31.5. This may initially indicate that buyers of the stock are overpaying for it. Indeed, its shares are likely to have been buoyed at least to some extent by the increasing use of artificial intelligence in the company's decision-making tools and the long-term growth potential this brings. However, in Questor's view, the stock continues to offer fair value for money given its excellent past performance and upbeat future growth prospects. Its earnings have risen at an annualised rate of 11pc over the past three years, for example, and it is forecast to maintain this pace of increase over the next two financial years. Alongside this, Relx has a clear and sustainable competitive advantage, with its return on equity last year amounting to an exceptionally high 56pc. Although this figure is undoubtedly flattered by the aforementioned use of substantial debt, it nevertheless indicates that the company's business model and market position are sound. Relx therefore becomes the latest addition to our wealth preserver portfolio. Its notional purchase will be funded partly by existing cash generated from previous sales and partly by the exits of Social Housing REIT (formerly called Triple Point Social Housing) and Residential Secure Income from the portfolio. They have posted extremely disappointing total losses of 30pc apiece since being added in August 2021. Clearly, we should have included Relx in the wealth preserver portfolio long before today. It has generated stunning returns following our initial 'buy' recommendation in February 2018 that may naturally prompt some investors to question whether further capital gains are on offer. But with strong earnings growth potential, an excellent market position and a track record of sound performance, the stock continues to offer a favourable risk/reward opportunity on a long-term view.
