Guardian Partners Inc. Purchases New Shares in Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI)

Guardian Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 20,912 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,338,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in TRI. National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 115.7% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 963,315 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $164,292,000 after purchasing an additional 516,715 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 52.2% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,153,240 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $185,011,000 after purchasing an additional 395,481 shares in the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 909.9% during the 3rd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 209,993 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $35,815,000 after purchasing an additional 189,199 shares in the last quarter. AGF Management Ltd. grew its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 60.7% during the 4th quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 462,241 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $74,698,000 after purchasing an additional 174,546 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prana Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Thomson Reuters during the 3rd quarter valued at $19,143,000. 17.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on TRI. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters from $165.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Thomson Reuters from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters from $187.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters from $164.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, CIBC raised their price objective on shares of Thomson Reuters from $165.00 to $174.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $177.56.

Thomson Reuters Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE:TRI opened at $170.01 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $76.52 billion, a PE ratio of 34.77, a P/E/G ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.70. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $170.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $167.83. Thomson Reuters Co. has a fifty-two week low of $149.50 and a fifty-two week high of $180.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The business services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.04. Thomson Reuters had a net margin of 30.45% and a return on equity of 14.62%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Thomson Reuters Co. will post 3.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th were given a $0.595 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 20th. This is an increase from Thomson Reuters’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. This represents a $2.38 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.40%. Thomson Reuters’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.67%.

Thomson Reuters Profile

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.