2/9/2012 12:27 PM ET
(RTTNews) - Thomson Reuters (TRI: News ,TRI.TO,RUT.L: News ) Thursday reported a loss for the fourth quarter due to a goodwill impairment charge. Revenues grew 3 percent and came in ahead of Street estimates.
Thomson Reuters reported a loss for the fourth quarter of $2.572 billion or $3.11 per share compared to a profit of $224 million or $0.27 per share in the year-ago quarter.
The company took a $3.0 billion non-cash goodwill impairment charge related to its financial services business. Results for the quarter also included a $50 million charge primarily related to a reorganization of the former Markets division.
Adjusted earnings from continuing operations, that exclude businesses intended to be divested, rose to $452 million from $308 million last year. Adjusted earnings per share was $0.54 compared to $0.37 in the prior-year period; excluding the reorganization charge it was $0.59.
On average, 15 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.56 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Revenue for the quarter grew 3 percent to $3.577 billion from $3.458 billion in the year-ago quarter. Ten Street analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $3.330 billion.
Revenues from ongoing businesses increased 5 percent for the quarter, which exclude the Healthcare business.
The professional division grew 9 percent with strong results for Tax & Accounting led by growth in income tax software sales, Checkpoint and acquisitions. Markets division grew 2 percent with strong results for Enterprise segment driven by a continuing trend among customers to invest in pricing and reference data, low-latency data feeds and hosting solutions. Within Markets, the Investment & Advisory segment reported a decline in revenues.
Underlying operating profit margin for the quarter rose to 19.6 percent from 19.1 percent last year.
Full-year adjusted earnings per share was $1.98 compared to $1.56 in the prior year, and included a $0.06 favorable impact from currency. Street expected $1.99 per share. Excluding the reorganization charge, adjusted earnings per share was $2.03.
The company announced its intention to sell three businesses, viz. Tax & Accounting's Property Tax Services; Legal's Law School Publishing business; and, Financial & Risk's eXimius business - part of the Retail Wealth Management organization. The three businesses collectively had approximately $155 million of revenues in 2011 and are expected to close by mid-year.
In 2012, Thomson Reuters expects its revenues to grow low single-digits.
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