Amazon Stock Up 30%: Is AMZN Still a Buy Before Earnings?<\/a><\/p>\nProch broke down the buyback, saying just over \u00a3400 million came from buybacks announced last year and nearly \u00a3700 million from the latest program announced in February. Combining the remainder of the year\u2019s \u00a33 billion buyback program with dividends, Proch said LSEG expects to return \u201cnearly 10% of our market capitalization to shareholders over a 15-month period.\u201d He added that the group expects to end the year \u201caround the middle of our leverage range\u201d despite investment and distributions.<\/p>\n
AI distribution and product enhancements: MCP adoption expands, commercialization framework to come at H1 <\/p>\n
Management spent much of the call discussing its \u201cLSEG Everywhere\u201d strategy and the use of a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server to distribute AI-ready data. Schwimmer said that in roughly four months since launch, 90 customers have connected to the MCP server directly or via AI partners, with a pipeline of more than 60 additional customers.<\/p>\n
Schwimmer said around half of connections are through Claude, with the rest split between direct connections and other third parties. He also said LSEG is adding datasets regularly, and that more than half of its non-real-time data is now available via MCP. He listed upcoming additions over the coming weeks, including transcripts, Lipper funds, and FTSE Russell indices.<\/p>\n
On monetization, Schwimmer told Jefferies analyst Tom Mills that customers understand MCP is \u201cincremental\u201d and \u201coutside\u201d existing agreement perimeters, adding that LSEG is in early discussions with \u201ca half dozen or so\u201d customers about the commercial framework. He said the company will share that commercialization framework at its half-year results.<\/p>\n
In response to Bank of America analyst Hubert Lam, Schwimmer also clarified that there is \u201cno MCP revenue\u201d included in the DNA results reported for the quarter.<\/p>\n
Proch discussed MCP economics in response to UBS analyst Michael Werner, saying customers bear the cost of tokens for large language models such as OpenAI, Claude, or Gemini. LSEG\u2019s MCP costs, he said, are \u201cmostly\u201d cloud and data platform costs, and \u201cboth of these costs are indeed variable,\u201d which the company is considering as it develops pricing and commercial policies.<\/p>\n
Schwimmer said LSEG is \u201cvery comfortable\u201d making its data available through MCP and views it as a strong cross-selling and lead-generation tool, describing it as \u201ca much stronger cross-selling machine than any human could be.\u201d He said the model can search across accessible datasets to answer queries and can be structured to flag licensing gaps as potential sales leads.<\/p>\n
Workspace engagement and data consumption metrics rise amid volatility <\/p>\n
Schwimmer said LSEG is also embedding AI into Workspace, with an AI search product piloted with around 1,500 users and planned for general availability \u201cin the next few months.\u201d He added that Workspace AI deep research capability is in pilot with around 1,600 customers and is benchmarking well versus competitors, with more data to be added and broader rollout planned through 2026. Schwimmer noted that more than half of take-up is coming from investment management, where LSEG has traditionally had lower penetration.<\/p>\n
Management cited elevated customer engagement during the quarter. Schwimmer said Q1 saw record usage of Workspace, including a \u201c75% sustained uptick\u201d in oil tools usage and a threefold increase in demand for shipping data.<\/p>\n
He also highlighted multiple data consumption indicators in the quarter:<\/p>\n
Real-time business data traffic grew 33% in Q1, with a new all-time high in early April.<\/p>\n
Use of the cloud-based real-time offering \u201cReal-Time -Optimized\u201d rose fourfold in Q1.<\/p>\n
Data consumption through the Analytics API built with Microsoft grew 44% in Q1.<\/p>\n
Usage of tick history data via cloud-based solutions rose 39% in Q1.<\/p>\n
In response to questions about workflows within DNA, Schwimmer said he would not \u201coverinterpret any modest tick up or tick down\u201d and pointed to continued interest in new Workspace functionality and Open Directory, with additional product expansion planned, including private markets data.<\/p>\n
Markets strength, digital markets initiatives, and post-trade progress <\/p>\n
Schwimmer attributed Q1 Markets performance to LSEG\u2019s positioning in structurally growing areas, including fixed income, FX, and post-trade. He said the group saw \u201cexceptional volumes\u201d in interest rate swaps across both trading and clearing as customers adjusted to shifting market expectations, along with strong volumes across fixed income and FX. In equities, he said the group also achieved strong trading volumes.<\/p>\n
He added that FTSE Russell expanded in digital assets, attracting eight digital asset ETFs tracking its benchmarks in Q1, and noted demand for private markets indices with StepStone. Schwimmer said LSEG expects to deliver two digital markets capabilities: a Digital Settlement House in Q2 and a Digital Securities Depository in H2.<\/p>\n
On Model-as-a-Service, Schwimmer said LSEG made financial models from Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 G\u00e9n\u00e9rale available through the channel in Q1, marking the first time the company expanded its Analytics API to third-party models, with additional models from its post-trade business expected later in the quarter.<\/p>\n
On FXall, Schwimmer told Citi\u2019s Andrew Lowe that the business performed strongly in Q1 and has seen ongoing investment in speed, interface, and functionality. He pointed to \u201cfuller integration from FXall into Workspace\u201d as a key focus for the year, and also highlighted end-to-end processing capabilities, including straight-through execution into ForexClear and integration into Tradeweb.<\/p>\n
Addressing BNP Paribas\u2019 Arnaud Giblat on post-trade solutions with global banks, Schwimmer said the initiative is progressing well. He cited the launch of TradeAgent in Q1 for OTC processing and \u201csignificant onboarding of new customers.\u201d He said the focus is now on creating more integrated functionality across components such as Quantile, Acadia, and SwapAgent, adding that the business is \u201cnot a huge contributor\u201d yet but has a \u201cnice long runway of growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a final technical clarification during Q&A, Proch confirmed to JPMorgan\u2019s Enrico Bolzoni that a reported embedded derivative impact of \u00a35 million was not included in organic growth.<\/p>\n
Schwimmer closed the call by reiterating that Q1\u2019s record growth, increased adoption of AI-ready data distribution, and continued innovation support the company\u2019s outlook for the year, alongside \u201csignificant surplus capital\u201d being returned to shareholders.<\/p>\n
About London Stock Exchange Group (LON:LSEG) <\/p>\n
LSEG is a leading global financial markets infrastructure and data provider that operates connected businesses to serve customers across the entire financial markets value chain. With capabilities in data, indices and analytics, capital formation, trade execution, clearing and risk management, we operate at the heart of the world’s financial ecosystem and enable the sustainable growth and stability of our customers and their communities. Together, our five business divisions \u2013 Data and Analytics, FTSE Russell, Risk Intelligence, Capital Markets and Post Trade \u2013 offer customers seamless access to global financial markets, across the trading lifecycle. LSEG is headquartered in London and has a major presence throughout Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and emerging markets.<\/p>\n
The article “London Stock Exchange Group Q1 Earnings Call Highlights<\/a>” was originally published by MarketBeat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Points Record quarter: LSEG reported Q1 revenue up \u201calmost 10%\u201d (its strongest since the Refinitiv acquisition) with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21266],"tags":[3351,9582,9581,11151,29450,24310,29451,1854,9583],"class_list":["post-60694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london-stock-exchange-group","tag-customers","tag-david-schwimmer","tag-london-stock-exchange-group","tag-lseg","tag-michel-alain-proch","tag-model-context-protocol","tag-q1-revenue","tag-revenue-growth","tag-risk-intelligence"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116730640631867734","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}