Thomson Reuters’ unrivaled dominance in embedding AI directly into the legal and corporate workspace is the center of primary investment thesis here. By launching specialized legal and tax modules, the corporation has effectively transformed itself from a legacy data vendor into an indispensable, automated productivity backbone for law firms and corporate legal departments worldwide. This rapid AI adoption has triggered an acceleration in high-margin organic growth and positions the company to steadily raise prices and capture a greater share of enterprise budgets over the next decade.
The stock trades at 21.8 times the company’s forward earnings forecast. That’s justified by the corporation’s defensive cash-generating characteristics and projected earnings growth.
THOMSON REUTERS CORP. (Toronto symbol TRI; www.thomsonreuters.com) sells specialized information and software to the legal, tax and accounting fields. It also owns the Reuters news service.
On May 4, 2026, the company returned $605 million to its shareholders through a return of capital transaction (all amounts in U.S. dollars). Shareholders received a special cash distribution of $1.435518 a share. Thomson also consolidated its outstanding common shares by that amount.
As a result, investors received 0.984560 of share for each share they held before the transaction. That reduced the number of shares outstanding by 6.5 million.
On top of that, Thomson has repurchased 2.5 million of its shares for $262 million under its plan to buy back $600 million of its outstanding shares by August 18, 2026.
Thomson cash flow keeps strengthening the balance sheet
Meantime, in the quarter ended March 31, 2026, revenue rose 10.0%, to $2.09 billion from $1.90 billion a year earlier. If you factor out businesses that Thomson bought and sold, as well as currency rates, revenue improved 8%.
The company is also doing a good job attracting new customers and selling more products to existing ones. In the quarter, recurring revenue (excluding acquisitions) rose 8%, and it now accounts for 77% of total revenue.
That strong revenue growth also lifted overall earnings before unusual items by 8.1%, to $547 million from $506 million. Due to fewer shares outstanding, per-share earnings gained 9.8%, to $1.23 from $1.12.
Thomson continues to add AI tools to make its easier for clients to search its proprietary legal and tax databases. It also has over 2,600 experts that test and verify that information. This approach helps the company’s clients avoid relying on faulty data when making critical decisions.
[ofie_ad]
The company’s strong balance sheet will also let it keep improving its products. As of March 31, 2026, it held cash of $400 million, while its long-term debt of $1.33 billion is a low 3% of its market cap.
Thomson’s earnings should rise about 12% in 2026 to $4.47 a share, and the stock trades at 21.8 times that forecast. That’s an attractive multiple in light of Thomson’s strong brands, high market share and recurring revenue.
As well, with the March 2026 payment, Thomson raised your quarterly dividend by 10.1%, to $0.655 a share from $0.595. The new annual rate of $2.62 yields a solid 2.8%.
All in all, fears that new artificial intelligence (AI) tools will erode demand for its information products have pushed Thomson Reuters shares down 52.6% over the past year. However, these AI tools cannot access the company’s exclusive data. Moreover, Thomson has spent decades building databases that clients trust and depend on. It also continues to reward investors through regular share buybacks and dividend increases.
Recommendation in The Successful Investor: Thomson Reuters Corp. is a buy.
