Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) Trading Down 5.5% – Should You Sell?

Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI)’s share price fell 5.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $103.72 and last traded at $105.41. 827,474 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 2,836,112 shares. The stock had previously closed at $111.52.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $156.00 target price (down from $189.00) on shares of Thomson Reuters in a research report on Friday, February 6th. TD Securities reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Thomson Reuters in a report on Friday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley set a $116.00 price objective on Thomson Reuters in a research report on Friday, February 6th. UBS Group set a $131.50 price objective on Thomson Reuters in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $140.00 target price on Thomson Reuters and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $151.42.

Thomson Reuters Stock Down 0.6%

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $107.64 and a 200-day moving average price of $135.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.09, a PEG ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 0.94.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The business services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.01. Thomson Reuters had a return on equity of 14.62% and a net margin of 30.45%.The company had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. Thomson Reuters’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Thomson Reuters Co. will post 3.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th were paid a dividend of $0.655 per share. This represents a $2.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. This is a boost from Thomson Reuters’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 17th. Thomson Reuters’s payout ratio is currently 78.68%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Thomson Reuters by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,776,640 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $762,320,000 after buying an additional 85,684 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 4,664,372 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $616,342,000 after acquiring an additional 33,418 shares during the period. TLT Family Holdco ULC bought a new position in shares of Thomson Reuters during the second quarter valued at about $865,442,000. LCC Family Corp. bought a new position in shares of Thomson Reuters during the second quarter valued at about $813,253,000. Finally, SEG Family Corp. purchased a new stake in shares of Thomson Reuters during the second quarter worth about $659,930,000. 17.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI) is a multinational information and media company that provides content, technology and services to professionals in the legal, tax & accounting, compliance, risk, corporate and media sectors. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, the company combines news and editorial content from the Reuters news agency with specialist workflow platforms and databases designed to support decision-making and regulatory compliance across industries worldwide.

The company’s product portfolio spans legal research and workflow tools, tax and accounting software, regulatory and risk management solutions, and real-time news and data services.