Marshall Wace LLP Grows Stock Position in Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN)

Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in shares of Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN - Free Report) by 69.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 19,614 shares of the industrial products company's stock after purchasing an additional 8,063 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP owned 0.10% of Ituran Location and Control worth $611,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in Ituran Location and Control in the fourth quarter worth $117,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in Ituran Location and Control by 11.3% during 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. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D acquired a new position in Ituran Location and Control during the 4th quarter valued at about $207,000. Atria Investments Inc purchased a new stake in Ituran Location and Control in the fourth quarter valued at about $209,000. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans acquired a new stake in Ituran Location and Control in the fourth quarter worth about $229,000. 94.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Barclays increased 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 Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:ITRN traded up $0.43 on Thursday, hitting $35.49. 25,291 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 98,313. The firm has a market capitalization of $706.04 million, a P/E ratio of 13.60 and a beta of 0.80. Ituran Location and Control Ltd. has a 1-year low of $24.12 and a 1-year high of $45.43. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $35.57 and its 200 day moving average price is $33.02.

Ituran Location and Control (NASDAQ:ITRN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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 return on equity of 28.31% and a net margin of 15.65%. The business 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 firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.64%. This is a boost from Ituran Location and Control's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 20th. Ituran Location and Control's 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.