February has seen lots of the UK’s favorite Shares and Shares ISA picks nonetheless showing within the month-to-month high 10 lists. However traders are turning in direction of a few intriguing choices that catch my eye.
And don’t neglect, we’re heading into the final full month earlier than the ISA deadline, so we have to get our decisions so as quickly if we need to high up our ISAs earlier than time runs out.
So which FTSE 100 shares do UK traders favour now?
Picture supply: Getty Photos
February high picks
RELX (LSE: REL) has been creeping up the ISA recognition lists, as its share value has been sliding. It’s down 47% since its 52-week excessive of Could 2025. And the share value dropped sharply as we headed in direction of full-year outcomes on 12 February — which turned out strong.
Income elevated 7%, adjusted working revenue perked up 9%, and adjusted earnings per share jumped 10%. The corporate lifted the dividend 7%, properly forward of inflation. RELX returned £1.5bn to shareholders by way of share buybacks over the yr. And we should always count on an additional £2.25bn in 2026.
As with so many share value upsets nowadays, AI lies behind the drop — made worse by Anthropic’s Claude authorized chatbot launch. No one can have missed the software program sell-off that’s hit extra conventional tech shares throughout the board.
The longer term is prone to see RELX sentiment pulled two methods. Within the optimistic course now we have long-term clients who depend on human-led belief, with a well-proven monitor document. That may be particularly essential in RELX’s authorized knowledge choices. In opposition to that now we have the promise of low-cost and quick AI companies, and the hope that the proportion of deceptive slop they churn out will diminish.
Optimists see AI as a possibility for corporations to include it and supply the perfect of each worlds. Traders who really feel like that ought to take into account RELX whereas the shares are down, I reckon.
Struggling softies
The Sage (LSE: SGE) share value trajectory intently follows RELX, for a similar motive. Sage has for years been a primary choose for enterprise and accounting software program. And sure, the AI beast is threatening to take the meals from the mouths of human software program builders right here too.
Nevertheless it hasn’t held Shares and Shares ISA traders again. And Sage made a brand new entry in interactive investor’s high 10 ISA record in February.
We’ll have to attend till Could to see how the primary half of Sage’s present monetary yr goes. However in January’s first-quarter replace, CFO Jacqui Cartin reported “a strong start to FY26, with Q1 organic revenue growth accelerating to 10%.” And she or he reiterated full-year steering from November’s 2025 full-year outcomes.
Again then, administration spoke of natural income progress of 9% or higher. Working margins have been “anticipated to proceed trending upwards in FY26 and past.“
Is that this one other firm that might embrace AI and use it for future progress quite than being made redundant by it? I see likelihood of it. And I charge Sage as one other that long-term ISA traders ought to take into account. Simply watch out for the AI menace too.
