Tronox (NYSE:TROX) Shares Gap Up After Analyst Upgrade

Tronox Holdings PLC (NYSE:TROX) gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday after Truist Financial raised their price target on the stock from $5.00 to $7.00. The stock had previously closed at $5.54, but opened at $5.85. Truist Financial currently has a buy rating on the stock. Tronox shares last traded at $5.9650, with a volume of 957,572 shares trading hands.

TROX has been the topic of several other research reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Tronox in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 target price on shares of Tronox in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Tronox from $3.80 to $5.25 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Tronox from $4.25 to $5.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Tronox in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $5.53.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TROX. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Tronox by 203.0% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 6,534,894 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,270,000 after acquiring an additional 4,378,023 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its position in Tronox by 10.6% during the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 4,704,502 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,912,000 after purchasing an additional 452,000 shares during the last quarter. Shah Capital Management boosted its position in Tronox by 650.0% during the fourth quarter. Shah Capital Management now owns 3,000,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,510,000 after purchasing an additional 2,600,000 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Tronox by 1.1% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,826,014 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,329,000 after purchasing an additional 31,538 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP increased its position in Tronox by 97.4% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,587,831 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,120,000 after purchasing an additional 1,277,175 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.36% of the company’s stock.

Tronox Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $956.85 million, a PE ratio of -2.94 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 2.72. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $4.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4.27.

Tronox (NYSE:TROX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.46) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.21) by ($0.25). Tronox had a negative net margin of 11.39% and a negative return on equity of 8.10%. The firm had revenue of $699.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $776.21 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.13) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 13.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Tronox Holdings PLC will post 0.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Tronox Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 10th were paid a dividend of $0.05 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 10th. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Tronox’s dividend payout ratio is -9.76%.

Tronox Company Profile

Tronox Holdings plc is a vertically integrated global producer of titanium dioxide (TiO?) pigment and specialty materials. The company’s operations encompass the full supply chain for TiO?, from mining and processing titanium-bearing ores—such as ilmenite and rutile—to the production of high-purity pigment for use in paints, coatings, plastics, paper and other industrial applications. In addition to TiO?, Tronox’s product portfolio includes zircon, rare earth byproducts and other specialty minerals that serve a range of industrial markets.

Tronox operates a network of mines, processing facilities and pigment plants located across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Australia and South Africa.