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

Shares of Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the eleven research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $157.42.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on TRI. TD Securities increased their price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters from $142.00 to $159.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Barclays raised shares of Thomson Reuters from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $150.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. National Bank Financial downgraded 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, 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.

Institutional Trading of Thomson Reuters

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of TRI. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Thomson Reuters during the fourth quarter worth approximately $207,419,000. Bank of Nova Scotia acquired a new stake in shares of Thomson Reuters during the third quarter worth approximately $170,036,000. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 26.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,657,244 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $692,059,000 after buying an additional 1,179,155 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 6,607,664.7% during the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,123,320 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $138,048,000 after buying an additional 1,123,303 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 227.9% during the second quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,331,569 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $138,763,000 after buying an additional 925,535 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 17.31% of the company’s stock.

Thomson Reuters Price Performance

NYSE:TRI opened at $150.84 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $68.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 0.65. Thomson Reuters has a 12-month low of $117.46 and a 12-month high of $161.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The company’s 50-day moving average is $156.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $144.12.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Thomson Reuters had a net margin of 39.67% and a return on equity of 14.01%. The company’s revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.76 EPS. Research analysts expect that Thomson Reuters will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 21st were given a $0.54 dividend. This is an increase from Thomson Reuters’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 20th. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.43%. Thomson Reuters’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.99%.

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.