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

Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN) saw unusually-strong trading volume on Monday . Approximately 302,498 shares were traded 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 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 Performance

The stock has a market cap of $739.46 million, a PE ratio of 14.24 and a beta of 1.10. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $35.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.75.

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

Ituran Location and Control Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 3rd. Investors of record on Thursday, March 20th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. This is a positive change 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 5.38%. Ituran Location and Control’s payout ratio is presently 73.80%.

Institutional Trading of Ituran Location and Control

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