Thomson Reuters Profit Tops Estimate

(RTTNews) - Thomson Reuters Corp (TRI) (TRI.TO) Wednesday reported a swing to profit in the first quarter from a loss last year, when it incurred hefty tax expenses. Revenue declined, due mainly to some slackening at Financial and Risk as well as Legal segments. Both earnings and revenue for the quarter topped Wall Street estimates.

Thomson Reuters posted first-quarter earnings to shareholders of $282 million or $0.34 per share, compared with a loss of $31 million or $0.04 per share last year.

Results for the prior-year quarter included, among other items, positive discrete tax items of $14 million, compared with tax expense of $221 million in the prior year.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $374 million or $0.46 per share, compared with $313 million or $0.38 per share a year ago.

On average, 16 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.38 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenues for the first quarter declined to $3.13 billion from $3.18 billion in the prior year quarter. Eleven analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $3.11 billion for the quarter.

Among segments, Financial and Risk revenues edged down 1 percent to $1.66 billion, while Legal revenue fell 1 percent to $803 million. Tax and Accounting revenue climbed 10 percent to $348 million, and Intellectual Property and Science was up 4 percent at $243 million.

For fiscal year 2014, Thomson Reuters continues to expect revenues on par with 2013.

In October, the company announced plans to repurchase $1.0 billion of its shares by the end of 2014. In the first quarter of 2014, the company returned about $264 million to shareholders through the repurchase of nearly 7.5 million shares.

Thomson Reuters stock is trading at $35.75, up $0.92 or 2.64%, on a volume of 0.35 million shares. In Canada, the stock is trading at C$39.14, up C$0.99 or 2.60%, on a volume of 0.57 million shares.