National Bank Financial Upgrades Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) to Sector Perform

National Bank Financial upgraded shares of Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) from an underperform rating to a sector perform rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on TRI. CIBC upped their price target on Thomson Reuters from $146.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Barclays upgraded shares of Thomson Reuters from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $150.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a sector perform rating and issued a $153.00 target price on shares of Thomson Reuters in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Scotiabank increased their price target 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. Finally, TD Securities lifted their price objective on Thomson Reuters from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Thomson Reuters currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $157.42.

Thomson Reuters Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:TRI opened at $153.59 on Tuesday. Thomson Reuters has a 1-year low of $117.46 and a 1-year high of $161.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The stock has a market cap of $69.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.30, a P/E/G ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.65. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $155.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $145.04.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last announced its 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. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. Thomson Reuters had a net margin of 39.67% and a return on equity of 14.01%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.76 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Thomson Reuters will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 21st were paid a dividend of $0.54 per share. This is a positive change from Thomson Reuters’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 20th. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.41%. Thomson Reuters’s payout ratio is 36.99%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Thomson Reuters

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bank of Nova Scotia acquired a new stake in Thomson Reuters in the third quarter valued at $170,036,000. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 26.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,657,244 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $692,059,000 after acquiring an additional 1,179,155 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 1,123,303 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Thomson Reuters in the fourth quarter valued at about $160,372,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 17.3% in the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 6,240,651 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $755,514,000 after purchasing an additional 919,603 shares during the last quarter. 17.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.