Magnetar Financial LLC Takes Position in Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN)

Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ituran Location and Control Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITRN) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 12,313 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $384,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Ituran Location and Control during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $117,000. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Ituran Location and Control by 11.3% during the fourth 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 period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new position in shares of Ituran Location and Control during the third quarter valued at approximately $137,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in shares of Ituran Location and Control by 214.2% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 6,011 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $160,000 after acquiring an additional 4,098 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Ituran Location and Control by 132.1% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 7,731 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $206,000 after acquiring an additional 4,400 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the company’s stock.

Ituran Location and Control Stock Performance

Ituran Location and Control stock opened at $36.98 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $735.68 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.17 and a beta of 1.10. Ituran Location and Control Ltd. has a 1 year low of $24.12 and a 1 year high of $45.43. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $36.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.22.

Ituran Location and Control (NASDAQ:ITRN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The industrial products company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $82.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.81 million. Ituran Location and Control had a net margin of 15.65% and a return on equity of 28.31%.

Ituran Location and Control Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. 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 5.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. Ituran Location and Control’s payout ratio is 73.80%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Barclays raised 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 note on Thursday, February 27th.

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.