Thomson Reuters third-quarter profit tops forecasts

[October 23, 2015]  By Jessica Toonkel

(Reuters) - Thomson Reuters Corp on Friday reported higher-than-expected quarterly profit even as revenue dipped, hurt by foreign currency, and the news and information company reaffirmed its full-year forecast.

Third-quarter net earnings were $293 million, or 36 cents per share, compared with $250 million, or 28 cents per share, a year ago.

Adjusted for special items, earnings were 52 cents per share. Analysts, on average, were looking for 49 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

In its Financial & Risk segment, which provides news and analytics to financial services companies, revenue was $1.51 billion. The division's net sales were positive in all regions except for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, marking the sixth consecutive quarter the division has seen positive net sales.

Revenues from ongoing businesses fell 4 percent to $2.98 billion, but rose 1 percent when factoring out currency. Analysts were expecting $3.04 billion.

Thomson Reuters, which is the parent of Reuters News, competes for financial customers with Bloomberg LP, as well as News Corp's Dow Jones unit.

(Reporting By Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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