Thomson Reuters Corp (TRI.TO)

Not as bullish right now on this one. It is more expensive and the Reuters acquisition is so dependent on the financial industry. This is slower growth, although safe dividend. It would not be his top pick for growth going forward.

Have consistently grown their dividend a little bit. A good company in terms of 85% of its recurring revenue. The trouble he has with this is that growth always seems to be coming next year. Have done a lot of cost-cutting. Had some product misses, specifically in the financial side and are also suffering from the financial side contracting a little.

Preferred B Series II. This is sort of an old-style where it trades off the prime rate. If the primary goes up this will go up. Trades on the par value of $25, 70% of prime. Pays a dividend of about $0.52 per share. That could grow if rates go up. Was trading as high as $24 plus and is now down to $17.58. Really good value.

If you are income oriented, they should be okay. You can never get this stock cheap. If you are long term, then you should be very well served.

Most of the large investments and banks globally subscribe to this in one form or another. Very smart in that they own a big chunk of the legal businesses. Have been able to diversify their professional information services to a great extent. Took a big bet on the revamp of the financial services which has not gone as smoothly as had been hoped. At the current price, he is actually wondering where he is going to sell his holdings because it has come up a fair amount in the last year or so. It’s beginning to reflect full value.

Sold his holdings at around $40. Came out with some disappointing Q4 results and it backed off. He would look at this in the $37-$38 area.

(Market Call Minute) Very high yield. Trading at a cheap multiple if you look at margin expansion from cost savings that they will get over the next year or so.

Chart shows a 6% drop earlier this year with fairly high volume. Stock has now gone into a new consolidation level of about $37-$38.50. Wouldn’t be holding onto this right now, but would wait for the next move. Has gone up from $27 to $39 which is a pretty good gain. Has the potential to go back down to about $35. If it breaks above $39, he would be a buyer. $37 is a good support level and anything below that is a Sell.

Top line growth has been slow, but their secret is their cash flow generation. They have been a dividend grower, which is positive. This has a very strong ownership structure. It is now a question of executing on their merger and making sure the costs come out.

They transitioned out of print media and got into on-line. They provide financial data, etc. He thinks the issue is there were changes in leadership many times and the Thompson acquisition of Reuters was not as successful and many people would have thought it would be. Seems they struggle every year.

Just reported. Earnings were less than what the market was expecting. A great company that provides electronic information for financial companies, lawyers and scientific fields. They have been going through a big transition where they are replacing some of their older legacy platforms. Given its steady recurring cash flows, valuation got bid up over the last year and a half. So when they had the disappointing earnings release, the market responded by selling off. He would be a buyer in the $35-$36 range.

(Market Call Minute.) Turning things around. They are finally seeing a pickup in financials vertical for the company and finally putting the problem of Reuters behind them.

(Market Call Minute.) In a very tough market. Doing a lot of financial engineering right now, such as buying back stock and laying off thousands of people.

Getting kind of richly valued and they are not going to have a lot of free cash flow growth until 2015. Even when that happens, it is going to be rather modest. This is a cost reduction/margin improvement story.

Has been accumulating his positions throughout the downturn. Finally getting credit from the marketplace on their sales cycle turning around. Market is anticipating an inflection in their sales and he couldn’t agree more. Likes this one for the long-term. Their products work the way he thinks the next generation thinks it should and once those people start filtering into decision-making, it is going to be in demand.