Citi raises target for Legal & General stock to GBp 248 but keeps Sell

Published on 10/22/2026 at 14:45 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS

Citi lifted its target from GBp 245 to GBp 248 on October 6, 2026 and kept Sell. Legal & General stock costs EUR 3.59 on October 22, 2026.

Buyback and earnings shape valuation

Legal & General purchased 14,543,756 shares between October 5 and October 9, 2026.
Core operating profit reached GBP 918 million in the first half of 2026, up 7.00 percent.
Legal & General stock trades at EUR 3.59 at 2:38 p.m. CEST at Lang & Schwarz on October 22, 2026.
Citi raised its target from GBp 245 to GBp 248 on October 6, 2026, while retaining Sell.

Börsensaal London Kurstafeln Händler Legal & General Group plc GB0005603997 — Legal & General Group plc GB0005603997 Börsen-Editorial zeigt Börsensaal mit Händlern digitalen Kurstafeln und Sektor-Charts, Illustration mit AI erstellt.

Legal & General (ISIN GB0005603997) stock costs EUR 3.59 at Lang & Schwarz on October 22, 2026, while the group's latest buyback filing showed 14,543,756 shares purchased between October 5 and October 9. Investegate reported the purchases on October 12, 2026, with the shares due to be cancelled.

Buyback reduces the share count

The filing puts the repurchase into measurable terms. Legal & General said the cancellation would reduce shares in issue to 5,415,331,747, with the same number of voting rights. The purchases formed part of a buyback program announced on September 14, 2026, and average prices across the reported trades ranged from GBp 285.80 to GBp 289.13.

The capital-return plan is the clearest recent company-specific event for the stock. It also gives investors a direct metric to track: the number of shares remaining after cancellation, rather than only the headline size of the program.

What does the earnings base show?

Legal & General's first-half operating picture supplied the financial counterweight to the buyback. Yahoo Finance reported on October 6, 2026 that core operating profit rose 7.00 percent to GBP 918 million in the first half of 2026. Asset-management operating profit increased 10.00 percent to GBP 222 million from GBP 202 million, while core operating earnings per share rose 11.00 percent to 12.15 pence.

The figures show a comparison investors can test in later reporting: asset-management profit grew by GBP 20 million, while group core operating profit increased by GBP 60 million from the prior first-half reference cited in the report. The same report said Legal & General had announced a GBP 1.2 billion buyback, with GBP 450 million completed by the end of July 2026.

Analyst target stays below the quote

Yahoo Finance said Citi retained its Sell rating while raising its target from GBp 245 to GBp 248 on October 6, 2026. The report also put the average analyst target at GBp 274, below the LSE quote of GBp 298.40 at 1:42 p.m. BST on October 22, 2026. The primary-exchange 52-week range was GBp 217.20 to GBp 318.10 on that date.

Stock price in the German session

For German investors, the euro indication stayed tied to the current Lang & Schwarz quote rather than the pence quotation on the LSE. The combination of buyback execution, first-half profit growth and a target below the London quote leaves capital returns and operating delivery as the two measurable themes around Legal & General.

The stock was trading at EUR 3.59 at Lang & Schwarz on October 22, 2026 at 2:38 p.m. CEST.

The further course of trading is shown by the continuously updated real-time quote of Legal & General stock.