Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) Rating Increased 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 report issued on Thursday morning.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on the company. National Bank Financial upgraded Thomson Reuters from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Thomson Reuters from $163.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Thomson Reuters from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted 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. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $176.33.

Thomson Reuters Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TRI traded down $3.01 during trading on Thursday, reaching $161.73. The stock had a trading volume of 145,630 shares, compared to its average volume of 353,583. Thomson Reuters has a one year low of $133.26 and a one year high of $176.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 0.94. The stock has a market cap of $72.76 billion, a PE ratio of 32.01, a P/E/G ratio of 5.70 and a beta of 0.73. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $168.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $167.13.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The business services provider reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. Thomson Reuters had a return on equity of 14.85% and a net margin of 32.12%. The firm’s revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.82 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Thomson Reuters will post 3.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a $0.54 dividend. This is a positive change from Thomson Reuters’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.34%. Thomson Reuters’s dividend payout ratio is 42.52%.

Institutional Trading of Thomson Reuters

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TRI. Cibc World Market Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Thomson Reuters by 26.3% in the second quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 1,325,695 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $223,525,000 after buying an additional 276,206 shares during the period. MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new stake in shares of Thomson Reuters during the second quarter worth $45,514,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 11.0% during the third 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 purchasing an additional 255,387 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank raised its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 87.1% during the second quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 505,050 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $85,136,000 after purchasing an additional 235,145 shares during the period. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 909.9% during the third quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 209,993 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $35,815,000 after purchasing an additional 189,199 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 17.31% of the company’s stock.

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.