Reuters News parent misses earnings estimate

Thomson Reuters Corp. missed fourth-quarter earnings forecasts on Tuesday as the news and data provider stepped up investments it said would help deliver stronger-than-expected revenue growth this year and next, report Kenneth Li and Nick Zieminski of Reuters.

Li and Zieminski report, “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.

“Edward Jones analyst Matt Arnold called it a ‘mixed quarter,’ with better than expected revenue offset by weaker profits. The Toronto-based company is well placed to grow earnings given stable demand for its products, but the shares already reflect those positives, he said in a note to clients.

“The stock was down 3.5% in early New York and Toronto trading.

“Thomson Reuters, 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.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.