Sapient Capital LLC Buys New Position in Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI)

Sapient Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI - Free Report) TSE: TRI during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 91,605 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $13,461,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 17.3% in the 3rd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 6,240,651 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $755,514,000 after purchasing an additional 919,603 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Thomson Reuters by 26.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,657,244 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $692,059,000 after buying an additional 1,179,155 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 2.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,584,932 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $573,125,000 after buying an additional 150,880 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,088,818 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $500,872,000 after buying an additional 240,148 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Thomson Reuters in the 4th quarter valued at about $207,419,000. 17.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on TRI. National Bank Financial lowered shares of Thomson Reuters from a "sector perform under weight" rating to an "underperform underweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. CIBC upped their price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters from $146.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Thomson Reuters from $142.00 to $159.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. TD Securities boosted their target price on Thomson Reuters from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, Barclays upgraded Thomson Reuters from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $150.00 to $180.00 in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $157.42.

Thomson Reuters Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE TRI traded up $1.30 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $154.47. The company's stock had a trading volume of 289,919 shares, compared to its average volume of 304,195. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $155.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $143.06. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.23, a PEG ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 0.65. Thomson Reuters Co. has a fifty-two week low of $117.46 and a fifty-two week high of $161.57.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI - Get Free Report) TSE: TRI last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The business services provider reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Thomson Reuters had a net margin of 39.67% and a return on equity of 14.01%. The company's revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.76 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Thomson Reuters Co. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 21st were paid a $0.54 dividend. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.40%. This is an increase from Thomson Reuters's previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 20th. Thomson Reuters's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.99%.

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.