Ituran Location and Control (NASDAQ:ITRN) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume – What’s Next?

Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN) shares saw an uptick in trading volume on Monday . 302,498 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 236% from the previous session’s volume of 89,899 shares.The stock last traded at $35.93 and had previously closed at $38.05.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Ituran Location and Control Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $722.95 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.92 and a beta of 1.10. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $35.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $30.64.

Ituran Location and Control (NASDAQ:ITRN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The industrial products company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.02. Ituran Location and Control had a return on equity of 28.31% and a net margin of 15.65%. The company 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. This is an increase from Ituran Location and Control’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.50%. Ituran Location and Control’s payout ratio is currently 73.80%.

Institutional Trading of Ituran Location and Control

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ITRN. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Ituran Location and Control by 26.2% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 274,562 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $8,553,000 after acquiring an additional 56,956 shares during the last quarter. Aristides Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Ituran Location and Control by 26.5% in the 4th quarter. Aristides Capital LLC now owns 233,190 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $7,264,000 after purchasing an additional 48,850 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Ituran Location and Control by 8.8% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 228,537 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $7,119,000 after purchasing an additional 18,563 shares during the last quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Ituran Location and Control by 32.3% in the fourth quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 158,204 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $4,928,000 after purchasing an additional 38,652 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Ituran Location and Control in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,718,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

About Ituran Location and Control

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.