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

Shares of Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $173.45.

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. 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. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Thomson Reuters from $170.00 to $168.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters from $163.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, National Bank Financial raised Thomson Reuters from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th.

Thomson Reuters Stock Up 0.4 %

TRI stock opened at $167.26 on Friday. Thomson Reuters has a 52-week low of $117.46 and a 52-week high of $176.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $75.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.10, a P/E/G ratio of 5.61 and a beta of 0.73. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $167.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $164.95.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The business services provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.75 billion. Thomson Reuters had a return on equity of 15.22% and a net margin of 33.65%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.84 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Thomson Reuters will post 3.71 EPS 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. This represents a $0.58 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. Thomson Reuters’s payout ratio is presently 41.46%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FIL Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Thomson Reuters by 9.8% during the 4th 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 during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Thomson Reuters by 53.7% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 969,443 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $141,752,000 after buying an additional 338,896 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in Thomson Reuters by 7.9% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 4,047,773 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $630,534,000 after buying an additional 295,301 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 276,206 shares during the period. Finally, MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new position in Thomson Reuters during the second quarter worth $45,514,000. 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.