RELX (LSE:REL) left its full-year outlook unchanged in its October trading update, reassuring investors at a time when the debate over artificial intelligence continues to shape sentiment towards information businesses. For income investors, the FTSE 100 data and analytics group stands out for the length of its Dividend history and the consistency with which that payout has been raised. Understanding how that record is built, and what could disturb it, says more about the shares than the headline Yield alone.

Income that compounds rather than dazzles

As of 7 October 2026, RELX pays an annual dividend of 67.5p per share, with the latest interim distribution at 20.9p. The trailing 12-month yield is 2.7% and the indicated yield is also 2.7%. The trailing figure looks back at what has actually been paid over the past year, while the indicated figure annualises the most recent declared payment, so the two agreeing suggests a very steady pattern. In absolute terms this is a fairly modest income return, and it would not by itself place RELX on the shortlist of an investor seeking the highest immediate payout.

The more meaningful part of the case lies in growth and durability. The dividend rose 7.1% year on year, ahead of the rate of Inflation for much of the recent past. RELX has made continuous payments for 33 years and has increased its dividend for nine consecutive years, giving it one of the more dependable records among London's large companies.

A dividend that grows at this pace compounds over time. A holder who receives a modest yield today but sees the payment rise steadily may find that the income on the original Investment becomes far more notable after a decade, which is the logic behind favouring growth over a high starting yield.

Cover leaves room for buybacks

The Payout Ratio of 55.0% indicates that slightly more than half of Earnings is distributed, equivalent to cover of approximately 1.8 times. Cover is simply the inverse of the payout ratio: it shows how many times earnings could pay the dividend. This sits in a sensible middle ground. It is high enough to reward shareholders meaningfully, yet low enough to leave capacity for reinvestment in products and for share repurchases, which RELX has continued to carry out during the year.

Because a Business of this kind typically needs relatively little physical capital, a ratio around this level is less demanding than it would be for an industrial or a utility. Its main Assets are data, software and the expertise of its people, so a large share of Operating Cash Flow is free to be returned. A sharp profit shock would be needed to put the payment in doubt, and the most recent trading data offers no sign of one. That is a useful distinction for RELX (LSE:REL) shareholders, because the risk to the dividend is not an overstretched balance between earnings and payout but a deterioration in the underlying growth of the business itself.

Growth led by legal and risk

The October trading update reported underlying Revenue growth of 7% across the group for the first nine months of 2026, driven by analytics and decision tools. Legal led the way with 10%, followed by Risk on 8%, Scientific, Technical and Medical on 6%, and Exhibitions on 4%. The group reaffirmed its expectation of solid revenue and adjusted operating profit growth in the full year, with adjusted Earnings Per Share also expected to rise at constant currency, and adjusted operating profit growing faster than revenue across most segments.

That last point matters for shareholders. When profit grows faster than sales, margins are widening, and wider margins feed directly into the earnings from which dividends are paid. Risk and Legal both sell subscription-style tools that customers embed in daily workflows, which tends to make revenue more predictable than in event-driven or advertising-linked businesses. Exhibitions is the more cyclical division, which explains its slower pace.

The AI question

Sentiment has been tested by the question of whether generative AI will prove a threat to or an opening for owners of professional data. The argument for concern is that new tools could make some information easier to replicate. The counter-argument is that proprietary datasets, trusted content and workflow integration are hard to copy, and that AI can be built into analytics products to make them more useful. Which view proves correct will be settled by the growth numbers the company goes on to deliver, rather than by commentary from the market.

Legal is the division most directly exposed to that debate, since lawyers are early adopters of AI-assisted legal tools. Its 10% underlying growth in the first nine months is therefore a useful piece of evidence, though one period cannot settle the question. If that pace holds, it would suggest that RELX (LSE:REL) is able to turn new technology into additional revenue rather than lose ground to it, which is the outcome that dividend growth ultimately depends on.

What to watch

Full-year results early next year will reveal the final dividend, and whether the increase is consistent with the 7.1% growth recorded to 7 October 2026. Investors should follow whether Legal can sustain double-digit underlying growth, and whether the pace of share repurchases is maintained. Buybacks reduce the number of shares in issue, which lets a given total dividend bill stretch into a higher per-share payment.

Any change to the group's expectation that profit will grow faster than revenue would matter for dividend cover. A slowdown in Exhibitions would have less weight but could offer an early read on business confidence. For now, the unchanged outlook leaves the longer-term pattern of steady, inflation-beating increases intact, and the combination of moderate cover and a flexible buyback programme gives the board room to keep it going through a period of heavy investment in new products.