Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN) Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc trimmed its holdings in Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN) by 15.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 14,265 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 2,608 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.07% of Ituran Location and Control worth $444,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in Ituran Location and Control during the fourth quarter worth $117,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of 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 valued at $121,000 after acquiring an additional 392 shares during the last quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D purchased a new stake in shares of Ituran Location and Control in the fourth quarter valued at about $207,000. Atria Investments Inc acquired a new position in Ituran Location and Control in the 4th quarter valued at about $209,000. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans purchased a new stake in shares of Ituran Location and Control during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $229,000. 94.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ituran Location and Control Stock Performance

Ituran Location and Control stock opened at $34.94 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $695.10 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.39 and a beta of 0.90. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.72. 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) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The industrial products company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $82.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $81.81 million.

Ituran Location and Control Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th were given a $0.50 dividend. This is an increase from Ituran Location and Control’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.72%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 20th. Ituran Location and Control’s payout ratio is currently 73.80%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Barclays increased their price target 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.

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.