Jones Financial Companies Lllp Trims Position in Thomson Reuters Co. $TRI

Key Points

• Jones Financial Companies Lllp reduced its stake in Thomson Reuters Co. by 47.8%, owning 12,462 shares after selling 11,407 shares.
• Wells Fargo upgraded Thomson Reuters from an "equal weight" to an "overweight" rating, raising the target price from $187.00 to $212.00.
• Thomson Reuters reported earnings of $0.87 per share for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations of $0.83 and representing a year-over-year revenue increase of 2.6%.

Jones Financial Companies Lllp reduced its position in Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI - Free Report) TSE: TRI by 47.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,462 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 11,407 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp's holdings in Thomson Reuters were worth $2,153,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in TRI. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new position in Thomson Reuters in the 4th quarter worth approximately $448,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 33,663 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $5,683,000 after acquiring an additional 313 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,923 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $469,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 49.2% in the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 7,943 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,275,000 after acquiring an additional 2,618 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth raised its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 33.5% in the 4th quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 3,784 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $607,000 after acquiring an additional 950 shares during the last quarter. 17.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Thomson Reuters Stock Performance

TRI stock traded down $1.77 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $171.22. 801,815 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 895,962. Thomson Reuters Co. has a 52-week low of $151.60 and a 52-week high of $218.42. The stock has a market cap of $77.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.01, a PEG ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock's 50-day moving average is $187.80 and its 200 day moving average is $185.52.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI - Get Free Report) TSE: TRI last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The business services provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.04. Thomson Reuters had a net margin of 30.45% and a return on equity of 14.62%. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.79 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.85 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Thomson Reuters Co. will post 3.89 EPS for the current year.

Thomson Reuters Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th were issued a dividend of $0.595 per share. This represents a $2.38 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 19th. Thomson Reuters's dividend payout ratio is currently 65.75%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on TRI. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters from $197.00 to $187.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters from $181.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Thomson Reuters from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $187.00 to $212.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. TD Securities upgraded shares of Thomson Reuters from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $275.00 to $285.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded shares of Thomson Reuters from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $188.00 to $200.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $202.82.

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.