JPMorgan Chase & Co. Purchases 404,158 Shares of Thomson Reuters Co. $TRI

JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) by 47.0% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,264,235 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 404,158 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Thomson Reuters were worth $196,374,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in TRI. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC increased its stake in Thomson Reuters by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 1,414 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $284,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Thomson Reuters by 30.9% in the second quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 309 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $62,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of Thomson Reuters by 21.2% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 441 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its position in Thomson Reuters by 50.0% in the third quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 249 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its stake in Thomson Reuters by 3.0% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 3,274 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $659,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 17.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TRI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters from $160.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 6th. UBS Group set a $131.50 price target on shares of Thomson Reuters in a report on Friday, February 6th. BMO Capital Markets set a $165.00 price objective on Thomson Reuters in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Scotiabank reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $156.00 price objective (down from $189.00) on shares of Thomson Reuters in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce set a $183.00 target price on Thomson Reuters and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a report on Friday, January 16th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Thomson Reuters currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $156.42.

Thomson Reuters Stock Performance

Thomson Reuters stock opened at $83.20 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.79. Thomson Reuters Co. has a 1-year low of $81.91 and a 1-year high of $218.42. The company’s 50-day moving average is $115.79 and its 200 day moving average is $142.42.

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

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be given a $0.655 dividend. This is a boost from Thomson Reuters’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $2.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. Thomson Reuters’s dividend payout ratio is currently 78.68%.

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.