State of Tennessee Department of Treasury Increases Holdings in Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN)

State of Tennessee Department of Treasury increased its holdings in shares of Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN - Free Report) by 32.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 30,698 shares of the industrial products company's stock after purchasing an additional 7,555 shares during the quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury owned 0.15% of Ituran Location and Control worth $956,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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 buying an additional 14,527 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in Ituran Location and Control in the fourth quarter valued at about $835,000. Barclays PLC boosted its position in Ituran Location and Control by 132.1% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 7,731 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $206,000 after purchasing an additional 4,400 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Ituran Location and Control by 26.2% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 274,562 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $8,553,000 after purchasing an additional 56,956 shares during the period. Finally, State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D purchased a new stake in shares of Ituran Location and Control during the 4th quarter valued at about $207,000. 94.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of 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 Performance

Shares of ITRN stock traded up $0.22 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $35.17. 23,853 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 98,198. The firm has a market capitalization of $699.67 million, a PE ratio of 13.46 and a beta of 0.80. Ituran Location and Control Ltd. has a 12 month low of $24.12 and a 12 month high of $45.43. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $35.86 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $32.99.

Ituran Location and Control (NASDAQ:ITRN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The industrial products company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.81 million.

Ituran Location and Control Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 20th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.69%. This is an increase from Ituran Location and Control's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Ituran Location and Control's payout ratio is currently 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.