  Titanium disulfide TiS$_2$, which is a member of the layered transition-metal
dichalcogenides with the 1T-CdI$_2$-type crystal structure, is known to exhibit
a wide variety of magnetism through intercalating various kinds of
transition-metal atoms of different concentrations. Among them, Fe-intercalated
titanium disulfide Fe$_x$TiS$_2$ is known to be ferromagnetic with strong
perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) and large coercive fields
($H_\text{c}$). In order to study the microscopic origin of the magnetism of
this compound, we have performed X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray
magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) measurements on single crystals of heavily
intercalated Fe$_x$TiS$_2$ ($x\sim0.5$). The grown single crystals showed a
strong PMA with a large $H_\text{c}$ of $\mu_0H_\text{c} \simeq 1.0\ \text{T}$.
XAS and XMCD spectra showed that Fe is fully in the valence states of 2+ and
that Ti is in an itinerant electronic state, indicating electron transfer from
the intercalated Fe atoms to the host TiS$_2$ bands. The Fe$^{2+}$ ions were
shown to have a large orbital magnetic moment of $\simeq 0.59\
\mu_\text{B}\text{/Fe}$, to which, combined with the spin-orbit interaction and
the trigonal crystal field, we attribute the strong magnetic anisotropy of
Fe$_x$TiS$_2$.
