Tronox (NYSE:TROX) Sets New 12-Month Low After Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Tronox Holdings plc (NYSE:TROX) hit a new 52-week low during trading on Monday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $16.00 to $12.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Tronox traded as low as $8.73 and last traded at $8.81, with a volume of 92654 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.07.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Tronox from $15.00 to $13.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Tronox from $21.00 to $17.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. UBS Group upgraded Tronox from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $17.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Tronox from $18.00 to $16.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Tronox currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $16.50.

Institutional Trading of Tronox

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in Tronox by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 199,568 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,131,000 after buying an additional 9,969 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Tronox in the second quarter worth about $83,000. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D acquired a new position in shares of Tronox during the second quarter worth approximately $1,480,000. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its stake in shares of Tronox by 0.8% during the second quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,311,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,581,000 after purchasing an additional 10,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Tronox in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,009,000. 73.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Tronox Stock Up 4.4 %

The stock has a market cap of $1.54 billion, a P/E ratio of -20.35 and a beta of 1.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 2.72. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $10.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $12.99.

Tronox (NYSE:TROX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported ($0.13) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by ($0.30). The firm had revenue of $804.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $790.63 million. Tronox had a negative return on equity of 3.91% and a negative net margin of 2.40%. The company’s revenue was up 21.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.08) EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Tronox Holdings plc will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Tronox Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Tronox’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -104.17%.

About Tronox

Tronox Holdings plc operates as a vertically integrated manufacturer of TiO2 pigment in North America, South and Central America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates titanium-bearing mineral sand mines; and engages in beneficiation and smelting operations. It offers TiO2 pigment; ultrafine specialty TiO2; zircon; feedstock; pig iron; monazite; titanium tetrachloride; and other products.