Company Reports

London Stock Exchange Group reported a good first half, as volatility and uncertainty drove strong performance across the markets business. The data and analytics business showed improving growth dynamics, but management damped expectations for AI-related revenue impacts in the short term.

After the Refinitiv acquisition, London Stock Exchange Group is vertically integrated, from pretrading data and analytics over trading venues down to post-trade clearing and reporting, albeit dominated by its data business. Importantly, its assets form a strong symbiotic relationship wherein intellectual property generated within one strengthens the offering of the other, inducing demand for the group’s services.

London Stock Exchange Group released a first-quarter trading update showing good traction in the data and analytics business, promising adoption of its Model Context Protocol connectors, and strength across its trading and clearing venues, driven by market volatility.

We increase our Uncertainty Rating to High from Medium for London Stock Exchange Group.

After the Refinitiv acquisition, London Stock Exchange Group is vertically integrated, from pretrading data and analytics over trading venues down to post-trade clearing and reporting, albeit dominated by its data business. Importantly, its assets form a strong symbiotic relationship wherein intellectual property generated within one strengthens the offering of the other, inducing demand for the group’s services.

Along with good 2025 results, London Stock Exchange Group announced a GBP 3 billion share-buyback program and medium-term guidance relying on growth in its data and analytics business. The shares have recovered from their Claude plug-in-related selloff in early February, but upside remains.

After the Refinitiv acquisition, London Stock Exchange Group is vertically integrated, from pretrading data and analytics over trading venues down to post-trade clearing and reporting, albeit dominated by its data business. Importantly, its assets form a strong symbiotic relationship wherein intellectual property generated within one strengthens the offering of the other, inducing demand for the group’s services.

London Stock Exchange Group fell 9.7% on Feb. 3, caught in a broader selloff across software and financial data stocks. The trigger appears to have been a new AI plug-in by Anthropic, reigniting concerns around AI-driven disintermediation of data providers.

London Stock Exchange Group reported a good third-quarter trading update, showing slightly better growth in its data and analytics division. The exchange group also increased its share buyback program by GBP 1 billion to take advantage of its depressed share price.

The London Stock Exchange Group has doubled down on its market data and analytics strategy. After the Refinitiv acquisition, the group is now vertically integrated, from pretrading data and analytics over trading venues down to post-trade clearing and reporting, albeit dominated by its data business. Importantly, its assets form a strong symbiotic relationship wherein intellectual property generated within one strengthens the offering of the other, inducing demand for the group’s services.

London Stock Exchange Group reported first-half total income of GBP 4.5 billion, up 8% on an organic basis. The markets division stood out (up 10.7%), but all segments showed good growth. Competition in data and analytics is increasing retention efforts to stave off LSEG's advances.

London Stock Exchange Group reported first-quarter income of GBP 2,360 million, in line with company-compiled consensus. Income growth of 7.5% on an organic basis was good, supported by a strong performance in the markets segment. Increased market volatility drove good results across equities, foreign-exchange, and over-the-counter derivatives trading and clearing. Tradeweb continued to grab market share in the first quarter, growing its average daily volume by 34%. The index business also reported a good quarter with subscription and asset-based income up 8% and 13%, respectively. The segment saw healthy demand for its index products and benefited from higher market levels. Data and analytics posted 5% organic growth. LSEG sees good sales activity for its current offering as well as newly developed products. We maintain our GBX 11,200 fair value estimate and wide moat rating.

We have raised our London Stock Exchange Group fair value estimate to GBX 11,200 per share from GBX 10,200 after the company posted a strong end to 2024. We absorbed better-than-anticipated performance in the capital markets division in our model and lifted our near-term assumptions as well. As a result, we now anticipate 8% revenue growth for 2025, slightly ahead of LSEG's new guidance of 6.5%-7.5%. Our wide economic moat rating is unchanged. The shares appear fairly valued.

London Stock Exchange Group has doubled down on its market data and analytics strategy. After the Refinitiv acquisition, the group is now vertically integrated, from pretrading data and analytics over trading venues down to post-trade clearing and reporting, albeit dominated by its data business. Importantly, its assets form a strong symbiotic relationship wherein intellectual property generated within one strengthens the offering of the other, inducing demand for the group’s services.

The London Stock Exchange Group has doubled down on its market data and analytics strategy. After the Refinitiv acquisition, the new group is now vertically integrated from pretrading data and analytics over trading venues down to post-trade clearing and reporting, albeit dominated by its data business. Importantly, its assets form a strong symbiotic relationship wherein intellectual property generated within one strengthens the offering of the other, inducing demand for the group’s services.

Direct indexing in some form has existed for decades, but advances in technology have recently broadened its availability. With its arguable superiority to existing passive index funds and exchange-traded funds, investment industry leaders are positioning for the opportunities and threats it unleashes. While there have already been hundreds of billions of dollars dedicated to direct indexing offerings, numerous firms such as BlackRock and Morgan Stanley have acquired direct indexing capabilities in anticipation of further rapid growth.

London Stock Exchange Group, or LSEG, reported a good first half year. Total income was up 5.4% to GBP 4.204 billion with the second quarter, showing a step up from the first. Over the first half year, capital markets, risk intelligence, and the index business FTSE Russell stood out positively with double-digit organic growth rates. Data and analytics, LSEG's largest segment, showed decent organic growth at 4.3%, driven primarily by its strong data and feeds offering. Workflows (up 2.4%) had a decent half year as the exchange group booked further client wins and improved its retention metrics. In the second half of the year, the collaboration with Microsoft is expected to throw off its first deliverables in the form of greater access to data sets and easier integrations into clients' workflows. LSEG expects greater ability to price for enhanced products as well as greater data consumption as a result of how it makes its data sets available to its clients. As we have argued in the past, we believe that LSEG bought valuable intellectual property with acquisition of Refinitiv, much of which was underutilized in the past. The collaboration with Microsoft is the correct step, in our view, to unlock this potential. We maintain our GBX 9,800 per share fair value estimate and wide economic moat rating.

The London Stock Exchange Group, or LSEG, has doubled down on its market data and analytics strategy. After the Refinitiv acquisition, the new group is now vertically integrated from pretrading data and analytics over trading venues down to post-trade clearing and reporting, albeit dominated by its data business. Importantly, its assets form a strong symbiotic relationship wherein intellectual property generated within one strengthens the offering of the other, inducing demand for the group’s services.

We maintain our GBX 9,800 per share fair value estimate for London Stock Exchange Group after its first-quarter trading update release, which was in line with expectations. Total income of GBP 2.182 billion in the quarter matched consensus estimates collected by the exchange group prior to the release exactly. On a constant currency basis, income growth of 7% was good, supported by a strong quarter for Tradeweb, strong inflows into FTSE Russell-related products, and a good performance in OTC derivatives clearing. Our wide economic moat rating for London Stock Exchange Group is unchanged.

We maintain our GBX 9,800 per share fair value estimate for London Stock Exchange Group after it posted a good set of results. Total income of GBP 8.01 billion in 2023 (up 8% versus a year ago) was supported by a good performance across its three main segments. Particularly noteworthy, London Stock Exchange’s exposure to the rapidly expanding and successful Tradeweb fixed-income business has resulted in an outstanding 6% income growth in the capital markets segments. Other European exchange groups were not as successful in offsetting weaker performances in primary and secondary markets in 2023. Our wide moat rating is unchanged.