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

Shares of Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $156.85.

TRI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Thomson Reuters from $142.00 to $159.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. TD Securities upped their target price on Thomson Reuters from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $153.00 price target on shares of Thomson Reuters in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Barclays upgraded Thomson Reuters from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $150.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, National Bank Financial cut Thomson Reuters from a “sector perform under weight” rating to an “underperform underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th.

Thomson Reuters Stock Performance

Shares of Thomson Reuters stock opened at $155.83 on Monday. 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’s 50-day moving average is $155.16 and its 200-day moving average is $141.38. The firm has a market cap of $70.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 0.66. Thomson Reuters has a one year low of $117.46 and a one year high of $161.57.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The business services provider reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. Thomson Reuters had a return on equity of 14.01% and a net margin of 39.67%. Thomson Reuters’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.76 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Thomson Reuters will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 $0.54 dividend. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.39%. This is a boost from Thomson Reuters’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 20th. Thomson Reuters’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.99%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Thomson Reuters in the fourth quarter valued at $230,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,698,178 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $833,188,000 after purchasing an additional 52,138 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 53.7% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 969,443 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $141,752,000 after purchasing an additional 338,896 shares during the period. FIL Ltd increased its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 4,994,299 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $730,195,000 after purchasing an additional 445,444 shares during the period. Finally, Hobbs Group Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Thomson Reuters in the fourth quarter valued at $102,000. 17.31% of the stock is currently 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.