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

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.

Reading it: RELX is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

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. RELX and TRI 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 RELX and TRI 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.

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

Thomson Reuters Corporation is a Canadian-domiciled information services company headquartered in Toronto that sells research, workflow software and data to lawyers, accountants, tax professionals, corporate departments and governments. Its three core segments, known internally as the "Big 3" and about 83% of revenue, are Legal Professionals (Westlaw, Practical Law, CoCounsel), Corporates (legal, tax and trade compliance software for in-house teams) and Tax, Audit and Accounting Professionals (ONESOURCE, UltraTax, Checkpoint). It also owns Reuters, the global news agency, and a Global Print business it is now moving into a joint venture with KKR. Roughly 80% of revenue is recurring subscription revenue, which is why the company has compounded earnings and raised its dividend every year for more than three decades. The Woodbridge Company, the Thomson family holding vehicle, owns about 68% to 70% of the shares, so TRI is a controlled company with a long-term owner rather than a widely held one.

Full TRI guide

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

• RELX drivers: Risk analytics as the growth and profit engine; Legal AI products turning disruption into revenue.
• TRI drivers: AI products built on proprietary content; Big 3 organic acceleration.

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-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. For TRI, the dominant risk is AI substitution: if general-purpose agents from firms like Anthropic and OpenAI can perform enough legal drafting, research and financial analysis to displace paid seats, the subscription base and its pricing power both come under pressure, and February 2026 showed how violently the market will reprice that possibility.

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 RELX if you believe its drivers more; TRI 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 RELX and TRI guides.

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.

TRI. At about $107.85 on October 16, 2026, Thomson Reuters trades near 28 times trailing earnings and about 21 times forward estimates, with a market value near $47 billion, still well below the premium multiple it held before the February 2026 AI selloff even after the autumn rebound. Management's raised 2026 guidance calls for roughly 8% organic growth on about $8.07 billion of revenue and about $2.1 billion of free cash flow, and analysts expect about $4.43 of adjusted EPS for 2026. The annualized dividend of $2.62 per share works out to about 2.4% at that price; figures are approximate and drawn from company releases and Yahoo Finance data.

Headline figures (approximate, October 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); TRI shows revenue (ttm) ~$7.8B, +9.5% YoY in Q2 2026, q2 2026 revenue ~$1.95B, +9% (organic +8%); adjusted EPS $0.99 vs ~$0.96 consensus, adjusted ebitda margin (q2 2026) ~38.1%, net income (ttm) ~$1.7B (~21% net margin).

RELX and TRI 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 RELX and TRI exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.