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The parent company of Reuters News reported adjusted earnings fell to 43 cents per share from 54 cents a year earlier. That was 3 cents below Wall Street expectations, according to data from Refinitiv.
The Toronto-based company, which owns the Westlaw legal database and the Checkpoint tax and accounting service, said it invested $25 million in the quarter on additional sales and marketing resources, product development and data analytics.
Chief Executive Steve Hasker said the company was in a strong position to tap into trends emerging in the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Customers (are) increasingly realizing the value of our content and tools in a hybrid working world that’s affected by accelerating complexity,” he said in an email to staff.
Total revenues rose 6% in the quarter to $1.71 billion, ahead of analyst expectations, according to estimates from Refinitiv.
The company now sees revenue growth of around 5% this year, versus 4-5% previously, and expects to grow 5.5-6.0% in 2023, versus 5-6% before.
Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) is mid-way through a two-year $600 million investment into a “Change Program” to transform itself from a holding company of different businesses to a more focused, content-driven technology company.
“We’ll continue to look at acquisitions to supplement our existing assets to help drive organic growth in 2022 and 2023,” Chief Financial Officer Michael Eastwood told Reuters in an interview, adding the company had “billions” in capacity.
It raised the annual dividend by 10% to $1.78 per share.
The three main divisions – Legal Professionals, Tax & Accounting Professionals, and Corporates – reported quarterly sales up between 5% and 9%, but only the tax segment saw higher adjusted earnings before interest and other items (EBITDA).
The Reuters News division showed double-digit increases in both sales and adjusted EBITDA.
The group swung to a diluted loss per share of 36 cents in the quarter and posted a 73% drop in operating profit to $257 million, due to higher costs and a boost in the year earlier period from the sale of an investment.
Reuters News makes more than half its revenue from supplying news to Refinitiv, a data company spun off from Thomson Reuters and now owned by the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Thomson Reuters holds a minority stake in the LSE following the deal, worth about $7 billion as of Monday, the company said.
