Short Interest in Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN) Increases By 159.3%

Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 157,900 shares, an increase of 159.3% from the February 13th total of 60,900 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 181,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.9 days. Currently, 1.0% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Ituran Location and Control Stock Performance

ITRN traded up $1.15 during trading on Friday, hitting $37.98. 93,207 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 90,593. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.90. The firm has a market cap of $755.57 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.55 and a beta of 1.10. Ituran Location and Control has a 1 year low of $24.12 and a 1 year high of $45.43.

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

Ituran Location and Control Increases Dividend

The firm 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 represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.27%. This is a positive change from Ituran Location and Control’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. Ituran Location and Control’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 73.80%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ituran Location and Control

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of ITRN. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Ituran Location and Control by 26.2% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 274,562 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $8,553,000 after acquiring an additional 56,956 shares in the last quarter. Aristides Capital LLC lifted 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 buying an additional 48,850 shares during 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 valued at $7,119,000 after buying an additional 18,563 shares during the last quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ituran Location and Control by 32.3% in the 4th quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 158,204 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,928,000 after buying an additional 38,652 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ituran Location and Control in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,718,000. Institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.