Thomson Reuters Corp (NASDAQ: TRI) reported higher than expected quarterly profit. The company reported diluted net earnings of $2.24 billion or $3.03 per share Vs $417 million or 53 cents in the corresponding quarter.  Gains on sales of IP and Science helped to report EPS. Excluding charges and earnings from discontinued operations, the company earned 60 cents per share.

Thomson Reuters misses on revenues in its Q4 earning report. Foreign exchange was headwinds as revenue fell 1% to $2,860 million. On constant currency basis, the revenues rose 1%. Revenues from Financial and Risk was down 1% to $1.508 billion, the Legal segment reported 2% decline to $864 million. Tax and Accounting showed 1%  growth in revenues to $416 million and Corporate and other including Reuters News was up 4% to $77 million.

Adjusted EBITDA fell 21% to $635 million. Excluding Q4 charges and before currency, EBITDA rose 5% to $847 million as against consensus estimates for $828 million.

For full year diluted EPS  was $4.13, reflecting the gain on the sale of IP & Science. Full year revenues were down 1% to $11.2 billion and adjusted EBITDA decreased 4% to $2.95 billion. The adjusted EPS was $1.79, an increase of $0.01 per share. Excluding forth quarter charges, adjusted EPS was $2.07, up 16% from the prior year.

Full year cash flow from operations increased 5% to $3 billion while full year free cash flow increased 12% to $2 billion.

In 2016, the company repurchased approx. 41.9 million shares at cost of $1.7 billion. The company approved an additional $1 billion share buyback program and also approved a $0.02 per share annualized increase in the dividend to $1.38.

Thomson Reuters has sold IP and Science business in October 2016. In November, the company announced to take $200 – 250 million of charges in the fourth quarter to accelerate the pace of its Transformation program by further simplifying and streamlining the business. The company however incurred $212 million of charges in the quarter. Further, the company had made a $500 million towards pension contribution. Post this contribution, the funded status of the plan now exceeds 90% based on current market conditions.  The tax benefit of $200 million related to the contribution is accounted in the company’s fourth quarter 2016 cash flow from operations and free cash flow.

Going forward, for 2017, the company expects low single-digit revenue growth. EBITDA margins are expected in the range of 28.8%-29.8%. Free cash flow was at $0.9 – $1.2 billion and adjusted EPS of $2.35 Vs consensus for $2.34.

Thomson Reuters stock has a consensus “Hold” rating.