Andrew Nace, an executive vice president at Kronos Worldwide (KRO), recently picked up 4,000 shares. The buy increased his stake by 46 percent, and came to a total cost just over $33,200.
This marks the first insider buy of the year. Two company executives were buyers of shares last year, but the largest buy then was for a 2,000 share stake valued at just over $16,000. Overall, insiders haven’t been too active in buying or selling their shares.
Overall, company insiders own 81.1 percent of the company.
The titanium dioxide pigment manufacturer has seen shares get cut in half over the past year. Fears of a slowing economy have weighed on the firm, whose products are used across a variety of industries.
However, revenues are down only 25 percent in the past year, and shares now trade at about 10 times earnings, indicating that the market may have overreacted to the impact of a slowing economy.
Action to take: Shares pay a hefty dividend of about 8.7 percent here. However, that’s far in excess of the company’s earnings, so it’s possible that the dividend will have to be cut in the future if the company’s revenues don’t reverse higher.
For traders, shares appear to be trying to break out of a downtrend. The November $10 calls, last going for about $0.35, could see high-double-digit gains or better on a further jump higher in shares.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the company mentioned here, but may trade after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any of the companies mentioned in this article.