Thomson Reuters reports slightly lower third-quarter net profit

(Reuters) - Thomson Reuters Corp on Tuesday reported slightly lower quarterly revenue excluding currency effects and said it would take a charge of $200 million to $250 million in the fourth quarter to simplify and streamline its business.

The news and information company reported third-quarter net earnings of $286 million or 36 cents per share, compared with $293 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 $2.74 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 $1.52 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 $200 million to $250 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.

(Reporting By Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Nick Zieminski)