Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) Upgraded to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Wednesday morning.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on TRI. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Thomson Reuters from $171.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Thomson Reuters from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. CIBC lifted their price target on shares of Thomson Reuters from $164.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on shares of Thomson Reuters in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $165.00 price target for the company. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $176.10.

Thomson Reuters Stock Performance

TRI opened at $159.64 on Wednesday. Thomson Reuters has a 12-month low of $142.80 and a 12-month high of $176.03. The company has a market cap of $71.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.43, a PEG ratio of 5.69 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company’s 50 day moving average is $164.41 and its 200 day moving average is $165.89.

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

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were issued a $0.54 dividend. This is an increase from Thomson Reuters’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 21st. Thomson Reuters’s payout ratio is currently 42.52%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Thomson Reuters by 0.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,209,202 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,229,716,000 after purchasing an additional 57,854 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp grew its stake in shares of Thomson Reuters by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 2,684,883 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $458,559,000 after buying an additional 27,714 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Thomson Reuters by 11.0% in the 3rd 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 buying an additional 255,387 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 9.4% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,458,700 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $245,893,000 after buying an additional 125,167 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Market Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Thomson Reuters by 26.3% in the 2nd quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 1,325,695 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $223,525,000 after acquiring an additional 276,206 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.