Short Interest in Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN) Grows By 45.9%

Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 56,600 shares, an increase of 45.9% from the October 15th total of 38,800 shares. Currently, 0.4% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 71,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.8 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ituran Location and Control

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Blair William & Co. IL bought a new stake in Ituran Location and Control in the first quarter valued at about $203,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Ituran Location and Control by 11.6% in the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 398,740 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $11,117,000 after acquiring an additional 41,570 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ituran Location and Control by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 37,966 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,062,000 after acquiring an additional 2,469 shares during the last quarter. Heron Bay Capital Management increased its holdings in shares of Ituran Location and Control by 18.3% in the 1st quarter. Heron Bay Capital Management now owns 9,982 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $279,000 after acquiring an additional 1,541 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd raised its position in shares of Ituran Location and Control by 17.4% during the 1st quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 48,451 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,355,000 after acquiring an additional 7,166 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Ituran Location and Control Price Performance

ITRN traded down $0.66 on Friday, reaching $26.75. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 76,632 shares, compared to its average volume of 57,356. Ituran Location and Control has a 1 year low of $24.12 and a 1 year high of $30.00. The business’s 50 day moving average is $27.01 and its 200 day moving average is $26.69. The stock has a market cap of $532.16 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.49 and a beta of 1.14.

Ituran Location and Control (NASDAQ:ITRN) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The industrial products company reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $84.87 million during the quarter. Ituran Location and Control had a return on equity of 28.43% and a net margin of 15.42%.

Ituran Location and Control Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 26th were given a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.83%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 26th. Ituran Location and Control’s payout ratio is currently 61.18%.

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.