Thomson Reuters reports slightly lower third-quarter net profit

Thomson Reuters Corp on Tuesday reported slightly lower quarterly revenue excluding currency effects and said it would take a charge of USD 200 million to USD250 million in the fourth quarter to simplify and streamline its business.

The news and information company reported third-quarter net earnings of USD286 million or 36 cents per share, compared with USD293 million or 36 cents per share, a year ago.

Adjusted for special items, earnings were 54 cents per share.

Analysts, on average, were looking for 47 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S/.

Third-quarter revenue was up 1 percent before currency at USD2.74 billion, and was flat when currency changes were factored in. The company reiterated its forecast of 2 percent to 3 percent revenue growth for the year.

In its Financial & Risk segment, which provides news and analytics to financial services companies, sales outpaced cancellations for the tenth straight quarter.

Overall, unit revenue was flat at USD1.52 billion.

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

The company said the USD200 million to USD250 million charge in the fourth quarter was intended to streamline the business and would be taken in its Financial & Risk and the Enterprise, Technology & Operations Group businesses.

As a result of the charge, it revised its 2016 forecast for underlying operating profit margin to between 16 percent to 17 percent, from 18.4 to 19.4 percent.