Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) Trading Up 10.4% – Still a Buy?

Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI)’s stock price rose 10.4% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $90.79 and last traded at $89.28. Approximately 2,462,052 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 6% from the average daily volume of 2,315,682 shares. The stock had previously closed at $80.86.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TRI has been the subject of a number of research reports. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce set a $183.00 target price on Thomson Reuters and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a report on Friday, January 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $111.00 price target on shares of Thomson Reuters and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 7th. TD Securities reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Thomson Reuters in a research report on Friday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Thomson Reuters from $160.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $140.00 price target on Thomson Reuters and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $156.42.

Thomson Reuters Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $40.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.45, a PEG ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a 50 day moving average of $114.77 and a 200 day moving average of $141.04.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The business services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.01. Thomson Reuters had a return on equity of 14.62% and a net margin of 30.45%.The company had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. Thomson Reuters’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Thomson Reuters Co. will post 3.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be paid a $0.655 dividend. This is a boost from Thomson Reuters’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $2.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Thomson Reuters’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 78.68%.

Institutional Trading of Thomson Reuters

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,776,640 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $762,320,000 after buying an additional 85,684 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 4,664,372 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $616,342,000 after acquiring an additional 33,418 shares in the last quarter. TLT Family Holdco ULC bought a new position in Thomson Reuters during the second quarter worth $865,442,000. LCC Family Corp. bought a new stake in Thomson Reuters during the second quarter valued at $813,253,000. Finally, SEG Family Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of Thomson Reuters during the second quarter worth $659,930,000. 17.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Thomson Reuters Company Profile

Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI) is a multinational information and media company that provides content, technology and services to professionals in the legal, tax & accounting, compliance, risk, corporate and media sectors. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, the company combines news and editorial content from the Reuters news agency with specialist workflow platforms and databases designed to support decision-making and regulatory compliance across industries worldwide.

The company’s product portfolio spans legal research and workflow tools, tax and accounting software, regulatory and risk management solutions, and real-time news and data services.