HighTower Advisors LLC Boosts Stake in Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN)

HighTower Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN) by 7.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 31,061 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 2,249 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ituran Location and Control were worth $968,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Seizert Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings 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 during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Ituran Location and Control in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,718,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its position in Ituran Location and Control by 77.7% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 44,634 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,185,000 after buying an additional 19,514 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Ituran Location and Control by 58.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 39,464 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,047,000 after acquiring an additional 14,527 shares during the period. Finally, Four Tree Island Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ituran Location and Control in the 4th quarter valued at $920,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Barclays boosted their target price 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 3.2 %

Ituran Location and Control stock opened at $36.85 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $36.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.43. The firm has a market cap of $733.09 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.12 and a beta of 1.10. Ituran Location and Control Ltd. has a 52 week low of $24.12 and a 52 week high of $45.43.

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 for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $82.88 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.81 million.

Ituran Location and Control Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is a positive change from Ituran Location and Control’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. Ituran Location and Control’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.