Lazard Asset Management LLC Grows Stock Position in Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN)

Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN - Free Report) by 31.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 45,287 shares of the industrial products company's stock after purchasing an additional 10,866 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC owned about 0.23% of Ituran Location and Control worth $1,410,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ITRN. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in Ituran Location and Control in the 4th quarter worth about $117,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Ituran Location and Control by 11.3% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,871 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $121,000 after buying an additional 392 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in Ituran Location and Control by 132.1% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 7,731 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $206,000 after buying an additional 4,400 shares during the last quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D acquired a new stake in Ituran Location and Control in the 4th quarter worth about $207,000. Finally, Atria Investments Inc acquired a new stake in Ituran Location and Control in the 4th quarter worth about $209,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Ituran Location and Control Stock Up 1.4%

Shares of Ituran Location and Control stock traded up $0.51 on Friday, hitting $37.26. 67,558 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 100,698. The stock has a market capitalization of $741.25 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.28 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $35.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $33.91. Ituran Location and Control Ltd. has a 1-year low of $24.12 and a 1-year high of $45.43.

Ituran Location and Control (NASDAQ:ITRN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The industrial products company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $82.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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 business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 20th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is a boost from Ituran Location and Control's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 20th. Ituran Location and Control's payout ratio is currently 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.