Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of 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 company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 190,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.4 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ituran Location and Control in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,718,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Ituran Location and Control in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,329,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in shares of 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 worth $8,553,000 after purchasing an additional 56,956 shares in the last quarter. Aristides Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Ituran Location and Control by 26.5% during the fourth 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 during the period. Finally, Seizert Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 valued at $4,928,000 after purchasing an additional 38,652 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of 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 Down 0.8 %

ITRN stock traded down $0.30 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $36.58. 85,956 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 93,487. Ituran Location and Control has a 52 week low of $24.12 and a 52 week high of $45.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $727.72 million, a PE ratio of 14.02 and a beta of 1.10. The business has a 50-day moving average of $36.83 and a two-hundred day moving average of $31.57.

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 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.81 million.

Ituran Location and Control Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.47%. Ituran Location and Control’s dividend payout ratio is 73.80%.

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.