Grunden Financial Advisory Inc. Purchases New Shares in Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI)

Grunden Financial Advisory Inc. purchased a new stake in Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,582 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $231,000. Thomson Reuters makes up 0.1% of Grunden Financial Advisory Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in TRI. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 19.4% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,154 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $668,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC lifted its position in Thomson Reuters by 7.0% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 1,945 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $212,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in Thomson Reuters by 11.4% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 560,049 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $60,961,000 after buying an additional 57,200 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Thomson Reuters by 2.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,314,854 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $578,521,000 after buying an additional 118,225 shares during the period. Finally, Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. lifted its position in Thomson Reuters by 89.7% during the first quarter. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. now owns 138,600 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $15,061,000 after buying an additional 65,534 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 17.31% of the company’s stock.

Thomson Reuters Stock Performance

Shares of Thomson Reuters stock traded down $2.01 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $150.84. 380,568 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 304,613. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $156.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $144.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $68.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.18, a P/E/G ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 0.65. Thomson Reuters Co. has a one year low of $117.46 and a one year high of $161.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The business services provider reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Thomson Reuters had a net margin of 39.67% and a return on equity of 14.01%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.76 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Thomson Reuters Co. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 21st were issued a dividend of $0.54 per share. This is a positive change from Thomson Reuters’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 20th. Thomson Reuters’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.99%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. CIBC raised their price objective on Thomson Reuters from $146.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. National Bank Financial lowered Thomson Reuters from a “sector perform under weight” rating to an “underperform underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Barclays raised Thomson Reuters from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $150.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $153.00 price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, TD Securities lifted their price target on Thomson Reuters from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Thomson Reuters currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $157.42.

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.