Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) Upgraded to “Sector Perform” at National Bank Financial

National Bank Financial upgraded shares of Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) from an underperform rating to a sector perform rating in a research report released on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat reports.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on TRI. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters from $142.00 to $159.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. CIBC upped their price target on Thomson Reuters from $146.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. TD Securities raised their price objective on Thomson Reuters from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a sector perform rating and issued a $153.00 price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Thomson Reuters from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and lifted their price target for the company from $150.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $157.42.

Thomson Reuters Stock Up 0.4 %

Thomson Reuters stock opened at $153.59 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $69.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.65. Thomson Reuters has a 52 week low of $117.46 and a 52 week high of $161.57. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $155.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $145.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The business services provider reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Thomson Reuters had a return on equity of 14.01% and a net margin of 39.67%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.76 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Thomson Reuters will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

The firm 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 is an increase from Thomson Reuters’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.41%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 20th. Thomson Reuters’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.99%.

Institutional Trading of Thomson Reuters

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Thomson Reuters during the 4th quarter worth approximately $11,438,000. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC boosted its stake in Thomson Reuters by 3.4% during the third quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 6,052 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $741,000 after buying an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Thomson Reuters in the 4th quarter valued at $2,954,000. Sapient Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Thomson Reuters in the 4th quarter worth $13,461,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Thomson Reuters by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 16,298 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,383,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 17.31% 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.