Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) Shares Sold by Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC

Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC lessened its stake in Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) by 25.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,500 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 500 shares during the period. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Thomson Reuters were worth $253,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in TRI. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Thomson Reuters during the fourth quarter worth $160,372,000. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Thomson Reuters by 30.8% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 3,752,472 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $551,317,000 after acquiring an additional 884,572 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd grew its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 4,994,299 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $730,195,000 after acquiring an additional 445,444 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Thomson Reuters by 53.7% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 969,443 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $141,752,000 after purchasing an additional 338,896 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new position in Thomson Reuters in the 2nd quarter worth about $45,514,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 17.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on TRI shares. Scotiabank upgraded Thomson Reuters from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $164.00 to $182.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Thomson Reuters from $163.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on Thomson Reuters from $170.00 to $168.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Thomson Reuters currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $173.45.

Thomson Reuters Trading Up 0.6 %

Thomson Reuters stock traded up $1.02 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $169.02. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,864 shares, compared to its average volume of 377,107. Thomson Reuters Co. has a 1 year low of $117.46 and a 1 year high of $176.03. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $76.01 billion, a PE ratio of 31.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.10 and a beta of 0.73. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $164.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $162.62.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The business services provider reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.75 billion. Thomson Reuters had a net margin of 33.65% and a return on equity of 15.22%. Thomson Reuters’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Thomson Reuters Co. will post 3.72 EPS for the current year.

Thomson Reuters Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $0.146 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $0.58 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. Thomson Reuters’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.14%.

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.