Meridian Wealth Management LLC Buys New Shares in Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI)

Meridian Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Thomson Reuters Co. (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 26,414 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,506,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in TRI. Blair William & Co. IL raised its stake in shares of Thomson Reuters by 10.8% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 2,220 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $346,000 after buying an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd increased its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 90.3% during the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 2,200 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $343,000 after purchasing an additional 1,044 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Thomson Reuters by 103.7% during the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,261 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $352,000 after purchasing an additional 1,151 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 23.8% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 16,770 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,612,000 after acquiring an additional 3,223 shares during the last quarter. Finally, B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Thomson Reuters by 6.5% during the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 5,338 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $832,000 after acquiring an additional 324 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 17.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TRI has been the topic of several recent research reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of Thomson Reuters from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday. National Bank Financial raised shares of Thomson Reuters from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Thomson Reuters from $171.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Thomson Reuters from $163.00 to $164.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Thomson Reuters from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $176.33.

Thomson Reuters Stock Performance

NYSE:TRI opened at $162.02 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $72.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.44 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $167.61 and its 200-day moving average is $167.29. Thomson Reuters Co. has a 1-year low of $138.09 and a 1-year high of $176.03.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSE:TRI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The business services provider reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. Thomson Reuters had a return on equity of 14.85% and a net margin of 32.12%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.82 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Thomson Reuters Co. will post 3.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a $0.54 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This is a boost from Thomson Reuters’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.33%. Thomson Reuters’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.52%.

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.