Rafferty Asset Management LLC Purchases New Position in Thomson Reuters Co. $TRI

Rafferty Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 75,336 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $11,702,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. AGF Management Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Thomson Reuters by 186.8% in the 3rd quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 870,312 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $135,592,000 after acquiring an additional 566,908 shares during the period. Intact Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Thomson Reuters during the 3rd quarter worth $3,485,000. Profund Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Thomson Reuters in the third quarter valued at $5,061,000. JCIC Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Thomson Reuters in the third quarter valued at about $4,015,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Thomson Reuters in the third quarter valued at about $10,117,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 17.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on TRI. Royal Bank Of Canada raised Thomson Reuters from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $126.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. TD Securities reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Thomson Reuters in a research note on Friday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Thomson Reuters from $160.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $111.00 price target on Thomson Reuters and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, February 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $116.00 price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Thomson Reuters currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $156.42.

Thomson Reuters Stock Performance

Shares of TRI stock opened at $96.41 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $111.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $138.86. The company has a market cap of $42.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.79. Thomson Reuters Co. has a 12-month low of $79.71 and a 12-month high of $218.42.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last posted its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2 billion. Thomson Reuters had a return on equity of 14.62% and a net margin of 30.45%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.01 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Thomson Reuters Co. will post 3.89 EPS for the current year.

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.655 per share. 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. 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.