Legal And General Share Price Slides Despite Record £1.2bn Buyback in 2025 Results
11: 00 AM ET — legal and general share price tumbled even as Legal & General Group PLC unveiled 2025 full-year results that include a record £1. 2 billion share buyback and a 9% rise in core earnings per share. Profit before tax jumped 143% to £807 million, while core operating profits rose 6% to £1. 6 billion and core EPS reached 20. 93p. Management framed the figures and buyback as evidence of a reshaped business preparing to accelerate returns.
Legal And General Share Price Moves and Market Reaction
Shares were the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 after the results and the announcement of the largest-ever buyback, despite executives presenting the package as a vote of confidence in the group’s trajectory. The move to repurchase £1. 2 billion of stock sits alongside guidance for dividend per share growth of 2% and planned shareholder returns of £2. 4 billion over the next year, with a target of more than £5 billion between 2025 and 2027.
Market participants have been left weighing immediate returns against medium-term strategy; observers now watch how capital returns and continuing repositioning in asset management will influence investor sentiment. The legal and general share price reaction underscores investor sensitivity to the balance between buybacks, dividend guidance and longer-term growth signals.
2025 Results — Numbers and Strategic Highlights
The group posted a marked upswing in headline profit metrics for 2025: profit before tax rose 143% to £807 million and core operating profits increased 6% to £1. 6 billion. Core earnings per share climbed 9% to 20. 93p, landing at the top end of previously stated guidance. At the same time, results were described as broadly in line with analyst forecasts at the operating level, with some notable shortfalls flagged by management.
Commercial performance showed concrete wins: the group wrote £11. 8 billion of global pension risk transfer business, of which £10. 4 billion was in the UK, and workplace defined-contribution assets under administration increased 21% to £114 billion. Retail net flows reached £6. 2 billion, and an additional £3. 7 billion of assets have been won and are due to be onboarded in 2026. Asset management, which has been undergoing a repositioning, displayed signs of improvement in the results package.
Immediate Reactions and What Management Says
António Simões, Chief Executive, Legal & General Group PLC, said: “a sharper, more focused business” — a summation management used to frame the buyback and dividend guidance as evidence of confidence in the group’s direction. He pointed to the buyback alongside guided dividend per share growth of 2% as proof that the reshaped group is aiming to accelerate momentum.
Executives highlighted the combination of capital returns and targeted strategic wins as the route to restore investor trust; board-level decisions on the timing and scale of buybacks were presented as deliberate steps in that plan.
What’s Next
Looking ahead, Legal & General Group PLC plans £2. 4 billion of shareholder returns over the coming year and is targeting more than £5 billion between 2025 and 2027, while onboarding of new assets is scheduled for 2026. Watch for quarterly trading updates, execution on the £1. 2 billion buyback, and further signals from management on asset-management repositioning that will determine whether the legal and general share price stabilises or remains volatile. Market participants will also track dividend delivery against the 2% growth guidance as the next concrete test of the company’s stated trajectory.
