Thomson Reuters earnings up 25.6%

Financial news and information group Thomson Reuters on Tuesday reported a jump in first quarter profits, paced by gains in tax and accounting services and its electronic market trading platform. The company, which is incorporated in Canada and has its headquarters in New York, reported a net profit of $314 million, up 25.6 percent from a year ago and besting expectations. That amounted to 44 cents a share excluding one-time items, ahead of the average analyst forecast of 41 cents. Revenue edged up one percent from the same period a year ago to $3.35 billion. "The first-quarter performance was consistent with our full-year expectations," said chief executive James Smith. "The Legal, Tax & Accounting and IP & Science businesses each performed well. Our Financial & Risk business continues to make progress in a very difficult environment. We are executing against a more focused strategy. In all, we are on track and affirm our full-year outlook." Smith noted that the group last week announced an agreement to sell its health care business, which provides software and other health information services, for $1.25 billion, to focus on core operations. The company confirmed its outlook for revenue growth of around five percent for the year. Each of the Thomson Reuters divisions showed revenue growth, led by 31 percent gains in tax and accounting products. Financial services revenue was up just one percent, but lifted 10 percent in the Marketplaces unit which includes the Tradeweb platform. Revenue from news operations under the Reuters agency, which includes some 3,000 journalists in 200 bureaus worldwide, was steady at $82 million for the quarter. Thomson Reuters announced a reorganization last year that involves merging its Markets division and Professional division. Thomson Reuters' Professional division provides legal, tax and accounting, health care and science products while the Markets division supplies financial and other products. Thomson Reuters was created in 2008 with Canadian media giant Thomson Corp's takeover of British-based Reuters. Its shares were up 1.5 percent at $30.27 in morning trade on Wall Street.