Good quarter for Thomson

Article Excerpt

THOMSON REUTERS CORP. $39 (Toronto symbol TRI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 811.1 million; Market cap: $31.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 3.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.thomsonreuters.com) earned $374 million in the first quarter of 2014, up 19.5% from $313 million a year earlier (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Due to fewer shares outstanding, per-share earnings rose 21.1%, to $0.46 from $0.38. Revenue rose 1.0%, to $3.13 billion from $3.10 billion. The higher earnings are mainly due to savings from a recent restructuring plan, including job cuts and eliminating less-profitable products. These savings will help Thomson offset weaker demand for its information products from financial institutions, particularly in Europe, as they continue to cut costs in the wake of the 2008 credit crisis. Meanwhile, demand for Thomson’s other data products (legal, tax and accounting, and intellectual property/science) remains strong. Thomson Reuters is a buy. buy…