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

Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 83,600 shares, a decline 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 days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.4 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ituran Location and Control

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ITRN. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Ituran Location and Control by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 15,161 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $472,000 after purchasing an additional 532 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in Ituran Location and Control by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 29,629 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $923,000 after acquiring an additional 2,075 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC acquired a new position in Ituran Location and Control in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $311,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Ituran Location and Control during the fourth quarter valued at $178,000. Finally, Man Group plc grew its stake in shares of Ituran Location and Control by 62.0% in the fourth quarter. Man Group plc now owns 16,606 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $517,000 after purchasing an additional 6,356 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the company's stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ituran Location and Control from $35.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th.

Ituran Location and Control Price Performance

ITRN traded down $0.01 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $36.15. 77,994 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 93,333. The company has a market cap of $719.17 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.85 and a beta of 1.10. Ituran Location and Control has a twelve month low of $24.12 and a twelve month high of $45.43. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $36.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.66.

Ituran Location and Control (NASDAQ:ITRN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The industrial products company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $82.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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. Investors of record on Thursday, March 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is an increase from Ituran Location and Control's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.53%. Ituran Location and Control's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.