Brokerages Set Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) Target Price at $173.45

Shares of Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) have received an average rating of “Hold” from the twelve ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $173.45.

TRI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Scotiabank raised Thomson Reuters from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $164.00 to $182.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. National Bank Financial raised shares of Thomson Reuters from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters from $163.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered 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 note on Friday, August 2nd.

Thomson Reuters Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TRI opened at $169.51 on Monday. Thomson Reuters has a 12-month low of $117.46 and a 12-month high of $176.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $76.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.82 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $165.46 and a 200 day moving average of $163.55.

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

Thomson Reuters Cuts Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of TRI. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of Thomson Reuters by 23.8% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 16,770 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,612,000 after buying an additional 3,223 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd grew its position 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 worth $730,195,000 after acquiring an additional 445,444 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its stake in Thomson Reuters by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 581,703 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $85,320,000 after acquiring an additional 59,388 shares during the last quarter. Gillson Capital LP purchased a new stake in Thomson Reuters during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $15,063,000. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Thomson Reuters by 874.0% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 130,744 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $20,351,000 after purchasing an additional 117,320 shares during the last quarter. 17.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.