Head-To-Head Contrast: Ituran Location and Control (NASDAQ:ITRN) versus u-blox (OTCMKTS:UBLXF)

Ituran Location and Control (NASDAQ:ITRN) and u-blox (OTCMKTS:UBLXF) are both technology companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

94.8% of Ituran Location and Control shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.3% of u-blox shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Ituran Location and Control shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Ituran Location and Control and u-blox, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ituran Location and Control	0	1	4	0	2.80
u-blox	0	0	0	0	0.00

Ituran Location and Control presently has a consensus target price of $60.67, suggesting a potential upside of 16.41%. Given Ituran Location and Control’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Ituran Location and Control is more favorable than u-blox.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ituran Location and Control and u-blox”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ituran Location and Control	$375.23 million	2.76	$57.97 million	$3.03	17.20
u-blox	N/A	N/A	N/A	$3.99	42.61

Ituran Location and Control has higher revenue and earnings than u-blox. Ituran Location and Control is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than u-blox, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Ituran Location and Control and u-blox’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ituran Location and Control	16.03%	27.70%	15.75%
u-blox	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

Ituran Location and Control pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. u-blox pays an annual dividend of $1.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Ituran Location and Control pays out 66.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. u-blox pays out 32.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Ituran Location and Control has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Ituran Location and Control is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Ituran Location and Control beats u-blox on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. This segment also delivers on-demand navigation guidance, information, and assistance, including the provision of traffic reports and directions, as well as information on the location of gas stations, car repair shops, post offices, hospitals, and other facilities; and Connected Car, a service platform that includes a back-office application, a telematics device installed in the vehicle, mobile apps for IOS and Android users, and interface using the car infotainment screen, as well as usage based insurance and auto financing services. This segment serves insurance companies and agents, car manufacturers, dealers and importers, cooperative sales channels, and private subscribers. The Telematics Products segment offers Base Site, a radio receiver that includes a processor and a data computation unit to collect and send data to and from transponders, and to control centers; Control Center, a center consisting of software used to collect data from various base sites, conduct location calculations, and transmit location data to various customers and law enforcement agencies; navigation and tracking devices installed in vehicles; and SMART, a portable transmitter installed in vehicles that sends a signal to the base site enabling the location of vehicles, equipment, or an individual. The company was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Azor, Israel.

About u-blox

u-blox Holding AG develops, manufactures, and markets products and services supporting GPS/GNSS satellite positioning systems for the automotive, industrial, and consumer markets in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the United States, and the Asia Pacific. It operates through two segments, Positioning and Wireless Products, and Wireless Services. The company develops and sells chips and modules to locate and connect devices. In addition, it offers a range of GPS/GNSS positioning products, including satellite receiver chips, chips, receiver modules, receiver boards, antennas, and smart antennas for navigation, automatic vehicle location, security, traffic control, location-based services, timing, and agriculture. u-blox Holding AG was founded in 1997 and is based in Thalwil, Switzerland.