Thomson Reuters (NASDAQ:TRI) Shares Climb 6.5% – Here’s Why

Thomson Reuters Corp (NASDAQ:TRI)’s stock price shot up 6.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday. The stock traded as high as $122.25 and last traded at $122.72. 487,813 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 2,149,547 shares. The stock had previously closed at $115.26.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on TRI shares. TD Securities reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Thomson Reuters in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Thomson Reuters from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 8th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their target price on Thomson Reuters from $132.50 to $129.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Thomson Reuters from $121.00 to $124.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Scotiabank reissued a “sector outperform” rating and set a $135.00 price target on shares of Thomson Reuters in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $130.69.

Thomson Reuters Stock Up 6.9%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.75. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $102.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $94.31.

Thomson Reuters (NASDAQ:TRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.89 billion. Thomson Reuters had a net margin of 21.22% and a return on equity of 15.82%. The company’s revenue was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.87 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Thomson Reuters Corp will post 4.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Thomson Reuters Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th were paid a $0.6550 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $2.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Thomson Reuters’s payout ratio is currently 69.68%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 9,834 shares of the company’s stock worth $885,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Thomson Reuters by 1.4% in the first quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 9,682 shares of the company’s stock valued at $871,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 21.0% during the third quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 951 shares of the company’s stock worth $93,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 1.4% during the first quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 12,646 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,138,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 25.3% during the first quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 907 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares during the last quarter. 17.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is a global provider of information, software and technology solutions for professionals and institutions. The company serves customers in the legal, tax, accounting, audit, corporate, government, risk and compliance sectors, as well as the media industry. Its offerings combine authoritative content with workflow tools, data analytics and artificial intelligence.

Key products and services include Westlaw and Practical Law for legal research and practice management; Checkpoint and ONESOURCE for tax and accounting professionals; Confirmation for audit-related workflows; and CoCounsel, an AI-assisted legal technology platform.