Thomson Reuters (TRI,TRI.TO, RUT.L) 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.
Effective January 1, 2012, Thomson Reuters eliminated its Professional and Markets divisions and future results will be reported for its Legal, Tax & Accounting, Intellectual Property & Science and Financial & Risk segments.
The company announced a $0.04 per share increase in the annual dividend to $1.28 per share. A quarterly dividend of $0.32 per share is payable on March 15, 2012 to shareholders of record as of February 22, 2012.
TRI is currently trading at $27.61, down $0.16 or 0.58%, on the NYSE. Over the past year, the stock traded in a range of $25.28 - $41.35.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Business News
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.