Investors Buy Large Volume of Tronox Call Options (NYSE:TROX)

Tronox Holdings PLC (NYSE:TROX) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors acquired 16,388 call options on the company. This is an increase of 737% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,957 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of TROX. AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Tronox during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,188,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its stake in Tronox by 4.5% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 70,574 shares of the company’s stock valued at $497,000 after acquiring an additional 3,042 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its holdings in shares of Tronox by 12.6% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 366,203 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,578,000 after purchasing an additional 41,092 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC raised its position in shares of Tronox by 93.2% during the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 118,637 shares of the company’s stock worth $835,000 after purchasing an additional 57,237 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Tronox during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $93,000. 73.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TROX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Mizuho increased their price target on Tronox from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Tronox from $5.50 to $7.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and set a $8.00 target price on shares of Tronox in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Tronox from $3.80 to $5.25 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Tronox from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $6.03.

Tronox Stock Performance

Shares of TROX traded down $0.20 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $7.66. The stock had a trading volume of 1,707,346 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,782,345. Tronox has a fifty-two week low of $2.86 and a fifty-two week high of $8.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.97. The company has a market cap of $1.21 billion, a PE ratio of -3.74 and a beta of 1.18. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $5.64 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $4.49.

Tronox Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.05 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 23rd. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. Tronox’s payout ratio is presently -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.