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UK education company providing textbooks, digital learning platforms, testing/assessment and English-language learning products.
UK education company providing textbooks, digital learning platforms, testing/assessment and English-language learning products.
Earns mostly from testing, qualifications and digital courseware rather than printed textbooks; it sold its US school-textbook business in 2019 and its Penguin Random House stake by 2019 as well, shrinking to education services. Pearson VUE delivers professional and IT exams at test centers for a fee per exam, and college courseware is increasingly sold as a digital subscription.
In one line: A UK version of McGraw Hill/Cengage in education publishing.
Moat: narrow (brand, distribution, installed base). Long-established content libraries and testing-center accreditation give some stickiness, amid digital disruption.
Headquarters: London, UK · Founded: 1844 · Employees: 16,665
Size Pearson (PSON.L) is a United Kingdom Communication Services company (Publishing: Books/Magazines) with a market value of $10.4B, the 52nd largest of 363 United Kingdom companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at £1,295 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 18.2%, against +1.7% for the median peer and +3.6% for the United Kingdom market (cap-weighted) — highest of 8 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 3.2% over the last twelve months (peer median -0.8%); the operating margin is 14.5% (peer median 9.6%).
Valuation It trades at 18.4× forward earnings against a peer median of 14.0× (3rd most expensive of 8).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 1% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +1%, so the hurdle is -0 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 1.6 points above its cost of capital (6.7% WACC).
Backlog Backlog (remaining performance obligations) was £980M at 31 Dec 2025, up 12% on a year earlier — 0.3 years of trailing revenue. Backlog detail →
Credit Pearson has 1 bond outstanding ($467M), rated BBB by the agencies and trading like BBB- at a weighted spread of 131 bp.
Next results Next results expected around 25 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £3.63B | £3.58B | £3.55B | £3.67B | £3.84B |
| Revenue growth | — | +1% | -3% | -4% | — |
| Gross profit | £1.89B | £1.72B | £1.66B | £1.66B | £1.60B |
| EBITDA | £1.10B | £1.13B | £1.02B | £1.00B | £965M |
| Net income | £319M | £335M | £434M | £378M | £242M |
| Free cash flow | £1.07B | £946M | £900M | £815M | £684M |
| Capital expenditure | £439M | £419M | £408M | £426M | £504M |
| Total debt | n/a | £1.48B | £1.47B | £1.16B | £1.23B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pearson PSON.L | $10.4B | +18% | +3% | 15% | 18.4× | 0.9% |
| McGraw Hill MH | $2.08B | -8% | 0% | 16% | 5.6× | -5.6% |
| John Wiley & Sons WLY | $2.55B | +21% | 0% | 18% | 10.5× | 0.3% |
| Coursera COUR | $989M | -35% | +44% | -4% | 6.4× | n/a |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | PSON.L | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +2.2% | +10.3% | 2nd lowest of 8 |
| 6-month return | +18.2% | +1.7% | highest of 8 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -6.8% | -9.6% | 4th highest of 8 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +3.2% | -0.8% | 3rd highest of 8 |
| Operating margin | 14.5% | 9.6% | 2nd highest of 8 |
| Forward P/E | 18.4× | 14.0× | 3rd most expensive of 8 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 0.9% | -7.9% | 3rd most demanding of 8 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +1.0% | +1.5% | 4th lowest of 8 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -0.2 pp | -8.4 pp | 3rd most demanding of 8 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +1.6 pp | +4.5 pp | 3rd lowest of 8 |
| EV / EBITDA | 8.4× | n/a | — |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.3× | -4.8× | 2nd most indebted of 4 |
| Bond spread | 131 bp | n/a | — |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pearson PSON.L | United Kingdom | $10.4B | +18% | +3% | 15% | 18.4× | 0.9% | +1.0% |
| Springer Nature AG & Co. KGaA SPG.DE | Germany | $4.80B | +10% | +3% | 22% | 13.0× | -6.5% | +3.4% |
| Jiangsu Phoenix Publishing & Media 601928.SS | China | $3.60B | 0% | -13% | 7% | 15.4× | -7.9% | +0.5% |
| China Literature 0772.HK | Hong Kong | $3.18B | -9% | +12% | 2% | 34.3× | 40.8% | -3.6% |
| China South Publishing & Media 601098.SS | China | $3.11B | +2% | -1% | 11% | 13.6× | -20.2% | +3.8% |
| Kadokawa 9468.T | Japan | $3.02B | -2% | +3% | 2% | 101.9× | 25.1% | +6.1% |
| Central China Land Media 000719.SZ | China | $2.91B | +5% | -10% | 13% | 10.5× | -8.9% | -0.5% |
| Zhejiang Publishing & Media 601921.SS | China | $2.71B | +7% | -7% | 10% | 14.0× | -12.6% | +1.5% |
Pearson has 1 bond outstanding with $467M face value. The agencies rate it BBB; its bonds trade like BBB-. Weighted yield 6.34%, a spread of 131 bp over government bonds.
Pearson reported £980M of remaining performance obligations at 31 Dec 2025, up 12% from a year earlier. That is 0.3 years of trailing revenue already under contract.