Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) Receives $177.56 Average PT from Analysts

Shares of Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the ten research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $177.56.

TRI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. CIBC upped their target price on Thomson Reuters from $165.00 to $174.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Thomson Reuters from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Thomson Reuters from $175.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on shares of Thomson Reuters from $164.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters from $187.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Thomson Reuters

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of TRI. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Thomson Reuters in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Atomi Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Thomson Reuters by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,819 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after purchasing an additional 252 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Thomson Reuters by 52.2% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,153,240 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $185,011,000 after purchasing an additional 395,481 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 26.0% during the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 2,546 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $409,000 after buying an additional 526 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Thomson Reuters by 23.8% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,966 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $958,000 after buying an additional 1,145 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 17.31% of the company’s stock.

Thomson Reuters Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:TRI opened at $165.98 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market cap of $74.71 billion, a PE ratio of 33.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.70. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $173.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $167.97. Thomson Reuters has a one year low of $149.50 and a one year high of $180.42.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The business services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.04. Thomson Reuters had a return on equity of 14.62% and a net margin of 30.45%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Thomson Reuters will post 3.89 EPS for the current year.

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th were paid a $0.595 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $2.38 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.43%. This is a positive change from Thomson Reuters’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. Thomson Reuters’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.67%.

About Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters Corporation engages in the provision of business information services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in five segments: Legal Professionals, Corporates, Tax & Accounting Professionals, Reuters News, and Global Print. The Legal Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on legal research and integrated legal workflow solutions that combine content, tools, and analytics to law firms and governments.