Short Interest in Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN) Drops By 47.1%

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

Institutional Trading of Ituran Location and Control

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

Ituran Location and Control Price Performance

NASDAQ ITRN traded down $0.30 on Friday, reaching $36.58. The company had a trading volume of 85,956 shares, compared to its average volume of 93,487. Ituran Location and Control has a 1 year low of $24.12 and a 1 year high of $45.43. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $36.83 and a 200-day moving average of $31.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $727.72 million, a PE ratio of 14.02 and a beta of 1.10.

Ituran Location and Control (NASDAQ:ITRN) last posted its 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. The business had revenue of $82.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $81.81 million. Ituran Location and Control had a net margin of 15.65% and a return on equity of 28.31%.

Ituran Location and Control Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be given a $0.50 dividend. This is a boost from Ituran Location and Control’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. Ituran Location and Control’s dividend payout ratio is presently 73.80%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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.

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.