Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN) Short Interest Update

Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN) was the target of a large drop in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 83,600 shares, a drop of 47.1% from the February 28th total of 157,900 shares. Approximately 0.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 190,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.4 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ituran Location and Control

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in Ituran Location and Control in the 4th quarter worth about $117,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Ituran Location and Control by 11.3% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,871 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $121,000 after acquiring an additional 392 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new stake in Ituran Location and Control in the third quarter valued at approximately $137,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in Ituran Location and Control by 214.2% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 6,011 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $160,000 after purchasing an additional 4,098 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in Ituran Location and Control during the fourth quarter worth approximately $178,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Barclays upped their target price on Ituran Location and Control from $35.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th.

Ituran Location and Control Stock Performance

Ituran Location and Control stock traded down $0.30 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $36.58. 85,956 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 93,487. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $36.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.54. Ituran Location and Control has a 1 year low of $24.12 and a 1 year high of $45.43. The company has a market capitalization of $727.72 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.02 and a beta of 1.10.

Ituran Location and Control (NASDAQ:ITRN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The industrial products company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.02. Ituran Location and Control had a net margin of 15.65% and a return on equity of 28.31%. The business had revenue of $82.88 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.81 million.

Ituran Location and Control Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.47%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 20th. This is a positive change from Ituran Location and Control’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Ituran Location and Control’s dividend payout ratio is currently 73.80%.

Ituran Location and Control Company Profile

Ituran Location and Control Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides location based telematics services and machine-to-machine telematics products. It operates through two segments, Telematics Services and Telematics Products. The Telematics services segment offers stolen vehicle recovery and tracking services, which enables to locate, track, and recover stolen vehicles for its subscribers; fleet management services that enable corporate and individual customers to track and manage their vehicles in real time; and locator services that allow customers to protect valuable merchandise and equipment.