Analysts Set Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) Price Target at $177.56

Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) has been given an average rating of “Hold” by the eleven brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $177.80.

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Thomson Reuters from $187.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Thomson Reuters from $165.00 to $177.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Thomson Reuters from $175.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com raised Thomson Reuters from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on Thomson Reuters in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $180.00 target price on the stock.

Institutional Trading of Thomson Reuters

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 4,977,006 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,381,842 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $864,195,000 after acquiring an additional 76,382 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Thomson Reuters by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,764,429 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $764,654,000 after acquiring an additional 516,605 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 74.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,315,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $214,236,000 after purchasing an additional 560,450 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Thomson Reuters by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,182,938 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $189,720,000 after purchasing an additional 61,235 shares during the period. 17.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Thomson Reuters Price Performance

Shares of NYSE TRI opened at $167.27 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $75.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.21, a PEG ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.70. Thomson Reuters has a twelve month low of $149.50 and a twelve month high of $180.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a 50 day moving average of $173.08 and a 200 day moving average of $167.78.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The business services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.04. Thomson Reuters had a return on equity of 14.62% and a net margin of 30.45%. As a group, research analysts expect that Thomson Reuters will post 3.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th were issued a dividend of $0.595 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $2.38 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.42%. This is an increase from Thomson Reuters’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. Thomson Reuters’s payout ratio is currently 48.67%.

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.