Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) has been given an average rating of “Hold” by the eleven brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $175.20.

TRI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded Thomson Reuters from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. National Bank Financial upgraded Thomson Reuters from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Thomson Reuters in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $165.00 price target on the stock. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Thomson Reuters from $171.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Thomson Reuters

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TRI. FMR LLC grew its position in Thomson Reuters by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,209,202 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,229,716,000 after buying an additional 57,854 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Thomson Reuters by 0.7% in the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 4,074,256 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $686,640,000 after acquiring an additional 26,483 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp increased its stake in shares of Thomson Reuters by 1.0% during the third quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 2,684,883 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $458,559,000 after acquiring an additional 27,714 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 11.0% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 2,577,905 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $439,665,000 after purchasing an additional 255,387 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its position in Thomson Reuters by 9.4% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,458,700 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $245,893,000 after purchasing an additional 125,167 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 17.31% of the company’s stock.

Thomson Reuters Price Performance

Shares of NYSE TRI opened at $163.15 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The company has a market cap of $73.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.69 and a beta of 0.71. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $165.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $166.45. Thomson Reuters has a 1-year low of $142.73 and a 1-year high of $176.03.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The business services provider reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.03. Thomson Reuters had a net margin of 32.12% and a return on equity of 14.85%. The firm had revenue of $1.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.82 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Thomson Reuters will post 3.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st were paid a dividend of $0.54 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.32%. This is a boost from Thomson Reuters’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Thomson Reuters’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.52%.

Thomson Reuters Company Profile

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.