Thomson Reuters Q2 Profit Down - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Thomson Reuters Corp. (TRI, TRI.TO) reported that its second-quarter earnings attributable to common shareholders declined to $126 million or $0.25 per share from $180 million or $0.36 per share in the same quarter last year, primarily due to lower operating profit, which reflected the impact of the warrant revaluation.

Operating profit decreased to $365 million from last year's $447 million, as the prior-year period included a significantly higher benefit from the revaluation of warrants that the company holds in Refinitiv relating to the proposed sale of Refinitiv to London Stock Exchange Group plc.

Adjusted earnings per share, which excluded the warrant revaluation as well as other adjustments, increased to $0.44 from $0.29 in the prior-year period, primarily due to higher adjusted EBITDA.

Revenues for the quarter were $1.41 billion, down from $1.42 billion in the prior year. Revenues decreased 1% as growth in recurring revenues was more than offset by expected declines in Global Print and transactions revenues, as well as a negative impact from foreign currency that reduced revenues by $21 million.

Thomson Reuters increased its full-year 2020 outlook for free cash flow and reaffirmed all other metrics for full-year 2020.

Total company revenues and total organic revenues for the third quarter of 2020 are expected to grow between 1.0% and 2.0%. The company's revenues continue to be negatively affected by Reuters News and delays in shipping of certain Global Print materials.

The company's "Big 3" segments -Legal Professionals, Corporates and Tax & Accounting Professionals- collectively are expected to achieve revenue growth and organic growth between 3.0% and 4.0% in the third quarter of 2020.

For fiscal 2020, the company still expects its total revenue growth of 1 to 2 percent and organic revenue growth of flat to 1 percent.

The company expects to generate between $1.0 billion and $1.1 billion of free cash flow this year.

The company said it does not anticipate any changes to its plans to pay the annualized dividend. In February 2020, the company announced that its board approved a $0.08 per share annualized increase in the dividend to $1.52 per common share. A quarterly dividend of $0.38 per share is payable on September 15, 2020 to common shareholders of record as of August 20, 2020.