Thomson Reuters posts higher than expected fourth-quarter profit

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Thomson Reuters Corp said Thursday its fourth quarter profit rose, reflecting a gain on the sale of a business, and forecast revenue will grow this year at a low single-digit percentage rate.

The news and information company reported net earnings of $2.24 billion, or $3.03 per share, compared with $417 million, or 53 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.

Excluding charges and earnings from discontinued operations, the company earned 60 cents per share, 2 cents above the analysts' average forecast, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"This is another steady quarter of progress," Chief Executive Jim Smith said in an interview.

Revenue of $2.86 billion was slightly below Wall Street estimates of $2.89 billion. In Thomson Reuters' largest segment, Financial and Risk, which provides news and analytics, sales rose 1 percent to $1.5 billion.

The division showed cancellations outpacing sales for the first time in 11 quarters, but net sales were up for the year as a whole, the third year of growth.

Economic conditions and cutbacks by big European banks, and to a lesser extent in Russia and Brazil, impacted the financial business this quarter, CEO Smith said.

"I don't think, there's ever been a more uncertain time," Smith said, adding the company is well-positioned to help clients. "If you look at changing regulation, changing tax regimes, all of those activities produce work for lawyers, tax accountants, exactly our end users."

Revenues at the Legal division were flat at $864 million; Tax & Accounting revenue increased 2 percent to $416 million.

In October, the company closed its sale of the intellectual property & science business for $3.55 billion.

Earlier this week, the company acquired Clarient Global LLC, a platform for client and customer data, and Avox Limited, a UK-based leading supplier of legal entity data. Terms were not disclosed.

Smith said the company was open to making strategic, 'tuck-in' deals but overall M&A was not going to be a large aspect of its strategy going forward.

Thomson Reuters, parent of Reuters News, competes for financial customers with Bloomberg LP and News Corp's Dow Jones unit. The Reuters unit's sales rose 5 percent in the fourth quarter to $77 million.

Thomson Reuters said its board had approved a 2-cent increase to its annual dividend, to $1.38 per share, and would boost its stock buyback by $1 billion.

The company said it aimed to accelerate revenue growth in 2017, forecasting a low-single digit sales increase, before currency, and adjusted earnings per share of $2.35, in line with current Wall Street estimates.

(Reporting By Nick Zieminski in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Alden Bentley)