Clearbridge Investments LLC Acquires 50,367 Shares of Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI)

Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) by 3.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,333,533 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 50,367 shares during the quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned approximately 0.30% of Thomson Reuters worth $207,804,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of TRI. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Thomson Reuters in the 4th quarter worth approximately $11,438,000. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Thomson Reuters during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $957,000. FIL Ltd increased its position in Thomson Reuters by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 4,994,299 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $730,195,000 after buying an additional 445,444 shares in the last quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Thomson Reuters during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,954,000. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its position in Thomson Reuters by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 581,703 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $85,320,000 after buying an additional 59,388 shares in the last quarter. 17.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TRI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on Thomson Reuters from $149.00 to $156.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. UBS Group lifted their target price on Thomson Reuters from $177.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Thomson Reuters from $159.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. National Bank Financial raised Thomson Reuters from an “underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Thomson Reuters from $152.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $170.64.

Thomson Reuters Stock Performance

Shares of TRI stock traded down $0.67 on Tuesday, reaching $164.99. The stock had a trading volume of 359,013 shares, compared to its average volume of 366,567. The stock has a market cap of $74.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.21 and a beta of 0.72. Thomson Reuters Co. has a 1 year low of $117.46 and a 1 year high of $176.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 0.97. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $168.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $159.71.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $1.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $1.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.86 billion. Thomson Reuters had a return on equity of 15.47% and a net margin of 34.87%. Thomson Reuters’s quarterly revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.85 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Thomson Reuters Co. will post 3.67 EPS for the current year.

Thomson Reuters Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th were given a dividend of $0.54 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.31%. Thomson Reuters’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.57%.

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.