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

Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $157.42.

TRI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays raised shares of Thomson Reuters from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $150.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $153.00 target price on shares of Thomson Reuters in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. CIBC increased their target price on shares of Thomson Reuters from $146.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. National Bank Financial cut shares of Thomson Reuters from a “sector perform under weight” rating to an “underperform underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Thomson Reuters from $142.00 to $159.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th.

Thomson Reuters Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of TRI opened at $150.84 on Friday. Thomson Reuters has a 1-year low of $117.46 and a 1-year high of $161.57. The company has a 50-day moving average of $156.04 and a 200 day moving average of $144.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $68.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.83, a PEG ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The business services provider reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.06. Thomson Reuters had a net margin of 39.67% and a return on equity of 14.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.76 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Thomson Reuters will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 21st were paid a $0.54 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 20th. This represents a $2.16 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 $0.49. Thomson Reuters’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.99%.

Institutional Trading of Thomson Reuters

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TRI. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Thomson Reuters by 19.4% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,154 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $668,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC grew its position in Thomson Reuters by 7.0% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 1,945 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $212,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in Thomson Reuters by 11.4% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 560,049 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $60,961,000 after buying an additional 57,200 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Thomson Reuters by 2.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,314,854 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $578,521,000 after buying an additional 118,225 shares during the period. Finally, Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. grew its position in Thomson Reuters by 89.7% during the first quarter. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. now owns 138,600 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $15,061,000 after buying an additional 65,534 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 17.31% of the company’s stock.

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.