Thomson Reuters (TSE:TRI) Reaches New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Thomson Reuters Co. (TSE:TRI) (NYSE:TRI)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as C$260.45 and last traded at C$259.13, with a volume of 102941 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$258.63.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. National Bankshares increased their price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters from C$260.00 to C$286.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Thomson Reuters from C$260.00 to C$265.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities increased their price target on shares of Thomson Reuters from C$250.00 to C$260.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Thomson Reuters to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Thomson Reuters currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of C$270.33.

Thomson Reuters Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day moving average is C$239.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$233.81. The stock has a market capitalization of C$81.68 billion, a PE ratio of 38.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 24.28, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.52.

Thomson Reuters (TSE:TRI) (NYSE:TRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported C$1.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of C$0.97 by C$0.04. Thomson Reuters had a net margin of 32.12% and a return on equity of 20.19%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Thomson Reuters Co. will post 5.6395803 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Thomson Reuters Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.595 per share. This represents a $2.38 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.92%. Thomson Reuters’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.12%.

Insider Activity at Thomson Reuters

In other news, Senior Officer David Franklin Wong sold 2,256 shares of Thomson Reuters stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$251.96, for a total value of C$568,432.59. Insiders own 69.76% 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.