EXPGY vs RELX: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

Last updated October 2026

Short answer

RELX is the larger of the two ($67.84B market cap): the incumbent the market prices for continued execution (18.27x forward earnings, beta 0.28). EXPGY is the smaller challenger ($32.91B), priced similarly on forward earnings (16.45x): more room to run, but more to prove. The real question is which set of drivers you believe, and whether owning one (or both) leaves you over-concentrated.

EXPGY vs RELX: the tie-breaker metrics

Same yardstick, side by side (as of October 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Metric	EXPGY	RELX	What it tells you
Market cap	$32.91B	$67.84B	Size. The larger name is the incumbent; the smaller has more room to grow and more to prove.
Forward P/E	16.45	18.27	Valuation on next year's expected earnings, the same yardstick for both. Lower is cheaper for that growth; higher means the market is paying up.
Trailing P/E	23.05	23.39	Valuation on the last 12 months. A big drop from trailing to forward means the market expects earnings to jump, so more growth is already in the price.
Beta	0.90	0.28	Volatility vs the market. Above 1 swings harder than the index; below 1 is steadier. Higher beta means bigger drawdowns to hold through.
Price vs 52-week range	32% of range	58% of range	Where today's price sits between the 52-week low and high. Near the high is momentum with less margin of safety; near the low is out of favor or a discount, depending on why.
Price / book	6.09	165.59	How much you pay over book value. Very high can signal an asset-light, high-return business or a rich price.

Before you buy: how EXPGY and RELX affect your concentration

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. EXPGY and RELX share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined EXPGY and RELX exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

What does Experian plc (EXPGY) do?

Experian plc runs credit bureaus and the data, analytics and software built on top of them. Lenders pay it for credit reports, scores, identity checks, fraud tools and decisioning software, which make up the B2B side (about 73% of revenue as of the June 2026 quarter). The rest is Consumer Services: free and paid memberships that let people check their credit score and file, plus marketplace referral fees when a member takes out a card or loan through the app. Experian had more than 215 million free consumer members at the end of fiscal 2026. Inside B2B, Financial Services (banks, card issuers, mortgage and auto lenders) is about 53% of group revenue, and Verticals (health, automotive, marketing data, insurance and others) about 20%.

Full EXPGY guide

What does RELX PLC (RELX) do?

RELX PLC is a UK-headquartered provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers, formed from the old Reed Elsevier. It runs four segments. Risk (LexisNexis Risk Solutions) supplies fraud, identity, credit and insurance analytics and is the largest profit contributor. Scientific, Technical and Medical (Elsevier) publishes journals such as The Lancet and Cell and runs databases like ScienceDirect and Scopus, with databases, tools and electronic reference making up around 40% of its revenue. Legal (LexisNexis) sells legal research and AI-assisted drafting, including Lexis+ AI and the Protégé assistant. Exhibitions (RX) organises trade shows worldwide. In 2025 the group generated about £9.6bn of revenue and about £3.34bn of adjusted operating profit, a margin near 34.8%, and most revenue is recurring subscription or transactional income. Underlying revenue growth in 2025 was 8% in Risk, 5% in STM, 9% in Legal and 8% in Exhibitions, so every division contributed. The ordinary shares list in London (REL) and Amsterdam, and the sponsored NYSE ADR represents one ordinary share.

Full RELX guide

EXPGY vs RELX: how do they differ?

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

EXPGY drivers: US B2B data and decisioning; Latin America and Serasa.
RELX drivers: Risk analytics as the growth and profit engine; Legal AI products turning disruption into revenue.

Which fits which kind of investor

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: The most immediate risk is FICO. For RELX, the most-discussed risk is that generative AI tools from OpenAI, Anthropic, Harvey, Thomson Reuters and others weaken the value of curated legal and scientific content, or push prices down.

EXPGY or RELX: which should you pick?

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick EXPGY if you believe its drivers more; RELX if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the EXPGY and RELX guides.

EXPGY vs RELX: the full fundamentals

EXPGY. At ~$37.68 per ADR (16 October 2026), Experian trades at roughly 21 times its fiscal 2026 Benchmark EPS of 179.8 cents, about 23 times statutory EPS, and around 16.5 times forward estimates. That is a lower multiple than the stock has commanded through most of the last decade, and it reflects the FICO licensing change and the slower Q1 rather than any fall in reported profit: Benchmark EBIT grew 15% last year and statutory pre-tax profit 26% to ~$1.95 billion. Guidance for fiscal 2027 still calls for double-digit Benchmark EPS growth on 8% to 11% total revenue growth. If that holds, the multiple compresses further on forward numbers. The yield is modest because Experian returns more cash through buybacks ($1 billion authorised to June 2027) than through dividends.

RELX. At an ADR price of about $38.42 on October 15, 2026, RELX trades near 20 to 21 times trailing adjusted earnings of roughly 134p, compared with a historical average closer to the mid-20s and a dividend yield of roughly 2.5%. JPMorgan put the shares at about 21x forecast 2026 earnings earlier in the year, down from about 24x a year before, and the multiple has compressed further since. Analyst views diverge widely, from Morningstar's fair value estimate of 4,200p (about $57 per ADR at the time) to UK commentators who see the de-rating as justified. The company's third-quarter trading update is expected around October 22, 2026, and RELX typically gives only qualitative commentary at that point, not full figures.

Headline figures (approximate, October 2026): EXPGY shows revenue (fy26, to march 2026) ~$8.45B (+12%; 8% organic), benchmark ebit (fy26) ~$2.41B (28.6% margin), benchmark eps (fy26) 179.8 US cents (+15%), market cap ~$33.0B (ADR ~$37.68, Oct 16, 2026); RELX shows revenue (fy2025) ~£9.6bn (+7% underlying), revenue (h1 2026) ~£4.87bn (+7% underlying), adjusted operating margin (h1 2026) ~35.5%, adjusted eps (fy2025) ~128.5p (+10% constant currency).

The bottom line: EXPGY vs RELX

EXPGY and RELX are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined EXPGY and RELX exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.

Wondering how EXPGY or RELX fits the portfolio you already own? Walnut is an AI investing app that connects your brokerage read-only and answers questions like that about your actual holdings: overlap, concentration, and how each position tracks the S&P 500. Compare the best AI portfolio analyzers or see the best AI investing apps in 2026.

Investing in Experian plc with AI

Connect the broker you already use and ask Walnut's AI how EXPGY fits what you actually hold: whether you own it already through a fund, what it would do to your concentration, and how it has tracked the S&P 500. Read-only by default, and you approve anything before it reaches your broker.

Does EXPGY fit me?

FAQ

What is the difference between EXPGY and RELX?

Experian plc runs credit bureaus and the data, analytics and software built on top of them. RELX PLC is a UK-headquartered provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers, formed from the old Reed Elsevier. They show up together because they share investment themes, but they are different businesses, so the better fit depends on which thesis you are expressing.

Is EXPGY or RELX the better stock?

Neither is universally better. RELX is the larger incumbent; EXPGY is the smaller challenger and looks cheaper on forward earnings. Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Compare what each does, the tie-breaker metrics above, and the risks, then decide which fits your thesis and what you already own.

Which is cheaper, EXPGY or RELX?

On forward P/E (as of October 2026), EXPGY trades at 16.45x and RELX at 18.27x, so EXPGY is the cheaper of the two on next year's expected earnings. A lower multiple is not automatically the better buy: a richer valuation can be justified by faster growth, and a lower one can reflect real risk. Weigh the multiple against how fast each business is compounding.

Should you own both EXPGY and RELX?

Because they share themes, owning both concentrates you in that theme. That can be intentional (a focused bet) or accidental (less diversification than it looks). Walnut can show your combined exposure across both, and whether adding either over-concentrates you, before you buy.

What are the risks of EXPGY vs RELX?

EXPGY: The most immediate risk is FICO. In late 2025 Fair Isaac launched a programme letting mortgage tri-merge resellers calculate and distribute FICO scores directly, bypassing the three bureaus, and Experian's FY26 results cite FICO mortgage royalties as a headwind to margins; Experian shares fell ~4% in London on the day of the announcement, and Jefferies estimated FICO's new models could hit bureau earnings by 10% to 15% on average. The second is slowing growth: Q1 fiscal 2027 organic growth of 7% was down from 9% in the prior quarter, EMEA and Asia Pacific grew just 1%, and the midpoint of FY27 organic guidance (6% to 8%) came in below what some analysts expected. Consumer Services is shrinking in North America while the breach contracts run off. Credit bureaus are regulated businesses, and the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the UK Financial Conduct Authority and Brazilian regulators can change what data may be held and how consumer products are sold; data security is a standing exposure for a company holding files on hundreds of millions of people. Currency matters too, because Experian reports in dollars but earns a meaningful share in reais, sterling and euros. For ADR holders specifically, EXPGY trades OTC (on the OTCQX tier) with thinner volume than the London line, so spreads can be wider; dividends paid directly by the company are subject to 25% Irish dividend withholding tax unless an exemption applies, so the amount received can be lower than the declared rate depending on how the depositary and the holder's paperwork handle it. RELX: The most-discussed risk is that generative AI tools from OpenAI, Anthropic, Harvey, Thomson Reuters and others weaken the value of curated legal and scientific content, or push prices down. That fear has already driven a large de-rating, with Morningstar putting the peak-to-trough decline from the 2025 high at roughly 50%, even though reported growth has not slowed. Elsevier faces ongoing pressure from open-access mandates and constrained university and government research budgets, including the risk of US federal research funding cuts. The Exhibitions business is cyclical and depends on corporate travel and marketing spending, and it was nearly shut down during the pandemic. RELX reports in sterling but earns heavily in US dollars, so currency swings move reported results and the ADR price, as the weaker dollar showed in the first half of 2026. The Risk segment also handles sensitive personal data, which brings regulatory, privacy and data-security exposure.

Walnut is informational, not investment advice. This page is descriptive and not a recommendation to buy or sell EXPGY or RELX; figures are approximate and dated (as of October 2026). Verify current data before investing.