Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the twelve brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $173.45.

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Thomson Reuters from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $164.00 to $182.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Thomson Reuters from $170.00 to $168.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Thomson Reuters from $163.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, National Bank Financial upgraded shares of Thomson Reuters from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th.

Thomson Reuters Price Performance

Shares of Thomson Reuters stock opened at $169.46 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.88. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $165.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $163.64. Thomson Reuters has a twelve month low of $117.46 and a twelve month high of $176.03. The firm has a market cap of $76.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.82 and a beta of 0.73.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The business services provider reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.75 billion. Thomson Reuters had a net margin of 33.65% and a return on equity of 15.22%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Thomson Reuters will post 3.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Thomson Reuters Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a $0.146 dividend. This represents a $0.58 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. Thomson Reuters’s payout ratio is presently 41.14%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Thomson Reuters

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TRI. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in Thomson Reuters during the 2nd quarter worth $25,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 76.9% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 184 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Thomson Reuters in the fourth quarter valued at about $41,000. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Thomson Reuters in the fourth quarter valued at about $48,000. Finally, Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Thomson Reuters in the second quarter valued at about $73,000. 17.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.