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.
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