Thomson Reuters net profit up 38 percent

Thomson Reuters said Tuesday that its net profit rose 38 percent in the third quarter but growth was sluggish in the heavyweight Markets division. The financial news and information company, which is incorporated in Canada and has its headquarters in New York, said net profit increased to $369 million in the quarter which ended on September 30 from $268 million a year ago. Revenue was up six percent at $3.45 billion, better than expected by Wall Street analysts. Earnings per share of 56 cents also topped the 53 cents forecast by analysts. Thomson Reuters said it expects revenue growth of between three percent and seven percent for the year. Thomson Reuters chief executive Thomas Glocer said in a statement he was "pleased with the performance of our business in the third quarter, a period during which we continued to grow revenues and expand margins. "In the quarter we also initiated a set of strategic, product and organizational changes to address those parts of our current Markets division that are not performing up to our expectations," Glocer said. "We expect the benefit of these changes will improve sales performance in 2012 and benefit 2013 revenue growth." Thomson Reuters announced a reorganization in September that involves merging 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. Revenue in the Markets division, which accounts for more than half of the company total, increased five percent in the quarter to $1.88 billion but by just one percent before currency adjustments. Professional division revenue rose 11 percent to $1.38 billion while revenue in the Media division was up five percent at $83 million. Thomson Reuters shares were down 1.35 percent at $29.27 in afternoon trading on Wall Street.