By Adriano Marchese
Thomson Reuters Corp. on Tuesday beat expectations on revenues and adjusted earnings beat expectations in the first quarter, benefiting from growth among its Big 3 business segments.
REVENUE: Revenue came in at $1.67 billion, up from $1.58 billion a year ago. According to analysts polled on FactSet, revenue was expected to rise to $1.66 billion. All three of the core segments posted growth in the period.
ADJUSTED EPS: Adjusted earnings per share rose to 66 cents from 58 cents, beating analyst expectations of 61 cents in the period.
NET EARNINGS: Net income fell to $1.01 billion from $5.04 billion a year earlier, which included a gain on the sale of the company’s investment in Refinitiv to the London Stock Exchange Group PLC.
OUTLOOK: Thomson Reuters raised its total revenue growth guidance to 5.5% from 5%.
ORGANIC GROWTH: Organic revenue rose 7% for the Big 3 segments–legal professionals, corporates, and tax and accounting professionals. The company’s 2022 guidance had called for total revenue and organic growth of about 5%, with the Big 3 segments posting revenue growth of between 6% and 6.5%. National Bank of Canada noted that Thomson Reuters has a target for top-line growth of between 5.5% and 6% in 2023 compared with 1.2% in 2020.
LEGAL SEGMENT: The company’s legal professionals segment, its largest, saw revenues rise 4% to $698 million. On an organic basis, revenue grew by 6%. National Bank of Canada suggested that the segment could have benefited from higher demand in 2021 for U.S. law firm services, which grew 4% compared with a fall of 1.6% in 2020. Lawyer headcount in November was up 3.9% year-over-year according to a Thomson Reuters and Georgetown Law report on the state of the legal market.
Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com