Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Grows Stock Holdings in Thomson Reuters Co. $TRI

Key Points

• Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. significantly increased its stake in Thomson Reuters, boosting its holdings by 81.1% to reach approximately $7.68 million in value.
• Despite a notable increase in institutional interest, Thomson Reuters saw a mix of analyst ratings, with one downgrade to "sell" and several adjustments in target prices by firms like JPMorgan and Barclays.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.595 per share, reflecting an annualized yield of 1.4% and a payout ratio of 65.75%.

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. raised its stake in shares of Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI - Free Report) TSE: TRI by 81.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 44,488 shares of the business services provider's stock after buying an additional 19,925 shares during the quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.'s holdings in Thomson Reuters were worth $7,682,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of TRI. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Thomson Reuters by 139.5% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 8,544,503 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,370,564,000 after purchasing an additional 4,977,006 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Thomson Reuters by 15.7% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 5,514,492 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $951,477,000 after purchasing an additional 750,063 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Thomson Reuters in the 1st quarter worth $23,126,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Thomson Reuters by 16,802.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 116,799 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $20,181,000 after purchasing an additional 116,108 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Thomson Reuters by 111.9% in the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 186,426 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $29,899,000 after purchasing an additional 98,441 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 17.31% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TRI has been the topic of a number of research reports. TD Securities dropped their price target on Thomson Reuters from $215.00 to $208.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen cut Thomson Reuters from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Scotiabank raised Thomson Reuters from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $188.00 to $200.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on Thomson Reuters from $215.00 to $208.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Thomson Reuters from $177.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Thomson Reuters presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $194.20.

Thomson Reuters Price Performance

Shares of TRI traded up $2.46 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $178.55. 1,237,461 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 890,218. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $194.39 and a 200-day moving average of $185.42. 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 $80.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.51, a PEG ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.02.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI - Get Free Report) TSE: TRI last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The business services provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $1.79 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.85 EPS. The business's revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Thomson Reuters Co. will post 3.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Thomson Reuters Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.595 per share. This represents a $2.38 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 19th. Thomson Reuters's dividend payout ratio is presently 65.75%.

Thomson Reuters 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.