Thomson Reuters Q3 profit beats forecast

By Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Thomson Reuters Corp's (TRI.TO: Quote) (TRI.N: Quote) quarterly revenue fell but profit beat Wall Street estimates, helped by foreign currency rates and cost cuts, and the company affirmed its 2009 outlook.

The news and financial data publisher reported on Thursday that revenue in its markets division, which serves the financial industry, fell 4 percent to $1.86 billion in the third quarter.

Revenue from ongoing businesses, excluding the impact of foreign exchange rates, fell 2 percent to $3.21 billion. That compared to the average analyst forecast of $3.23 billion.

"Financial firms are watching costs and being very careful on spending money, so a lot of discretionary expenses regarding services are being cut back," said Benchmark Co analyst Edward Atorino.

The company, formed last year by the merger of Thomson Corp and Reuters Group Plc, said underlying operating profit rose 3 percent to $711 million, from $690 million a year earlier.

Adjusted earnings per share fell to 43 cents from 47 cents, due to higher integration spending, but this beat the average analyst forecast of 40 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"While the weak year-to-date net sales experienced in recent quarters are now flowing through into revenues, we expect this dip to be shallow and limited to the next few quarters," Chief Executive Thomas Glocer said in a statement.

He also said, "Our Tax and Accounting and Healthcare and Science businesses continued to perform very strongly, and sales of subscription products in our Markets and Legal units improved in Q3 over what we expect were their bottom in Q2."