By Kenneth Li and Aditya Soni
NEW YORK, May 5 (Reuters) – Thomson Reuters reported a double-digit first-quarter revenue rise on Tuesday, boosted by gains in its “Big 3” business segments of legal professionals, corporates and tax, and audit and accounting, lifting its shares in premarket trading.
The Toronto-based content and technology company also reaffirmed its full-year 2026 revenue forecast of a rise of between 7.5% and 8% as it said customers were choosing its artificial intelligence products, which Thomson Reuters CEO Steve Hasker described as “fiduciary-grade AI”.
“Across law, tax, audit and compliance, professionals accountable for high‑stakes outcomes are choosing our AI products, built to the standards their work demands – grounded in authoritative content, designed and tested by our domain experts, and created to produce results that can be verified and audited under real‑world scrutiny,” Hasker said in a statement.
Shares in Thomson Reuters, which have fallen by nearly 30% this year, underperforming a rise of 5.2% in the S&P 500 index, rose by 2.3% in premarket trading on Nasdaq.
The stock has been hit by fears over the challenges that AI newcomers, including Anthropic, pose to companies such as Thomson Reuters. This triggered a wider selloff in software, data and professional services shares earlier this year.
Hasker highlighted the role of Thomson Reuters in delivering AI to professionals such as lawyers, tax preparers or court officials in an interview following the results.
“The consequences of error and hallucination are too much to bear,” Hasker said, adding that to get something wrong would result in fines. “They result in loss of reputation, loss of license to practice, loss of clients and client relationships. And that’s where fiduciary-grade AI kicks in,” he said.
Hasker cited the 2,700 legal experts on staff creating legal content and hundreds of accountants ready to answer questions and proprietary data as major advantages for clients to rely on Thomson Reuters services over those of frontier AI models.
FIRST QUARTER REVENUE, EPS EXCEED FORECASTS
“Thomson Reuters has done enough to calm the immediate AI concerns,” PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore said, adding: “The company appears well placed for the AI era, but the focus remains on execution.”
“If it can embed trusted, auditable AI deeper into daily workflows, it strengthens customer loyalty, protects pricing power and builds a more defensible long-term position,” he said.
Thomson Reuters Chief Financial Officer Michael Eastwood said in an interview that generative AI was responsible for about 30% of the company’s underlying contract value, which breaks down a contract’s total value, in the first quarter, compared with 28% in the fourth quarter.
Thomson Reuters said its first-quarter revenue rose 10% to $2.09 billion, surpassing estimates of $2.04 billion. It said earnings per share excluding items rose to $1.23. Wall Street had forecast earnings per share of $1.20.
Revenue at Reuters, Thomson Reuters’ news division, rose 7% as a result of higher agency revenue and a price increase from its business with the London Stock Exchange Group.
Thomson Reuters also said it completed a $605 million return of capital to shareholders, reducing outstanding common shares by about 6.5 million. It also repurchased 2.5 million of common shares for about $262 million.
Eastwood said the company had about $9 billion of capital to spend on deals through 2028.
(Reporting by Kenneth Li in New York; Editing by Alexander Smith)
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