iShares MSCI Brazil ETF Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSEARCA:EWZ)

iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (NYSEARCA:EWZ) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Traders bought 866,959 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 520% compared to the typical volume of 139,917 call options.

Institutional Trading of iShares MSCI Brazil ETF

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 1,276,599 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $40,558,000 after purchasing an additional 16,367 shares in the last quarter. Quinn Opportunity Partners LLC boosted its stake in iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 175.0% in the 3rd quarter. Quinn Opportunity Partners LLC now owns 220,000 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $6,820,000 after purchasing an additional 140,000 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 71.4% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,110,619 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $65,429,000 after purchasing an additional 879,500 shares during the last quarter. Black Swift Group LLC raised its holdings in iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 17.4% in the third quarter. Black Swift Group LLC now owns 362,435 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $11,235,000 after buying an additional 53,590 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 410.8% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 47,819 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $1,482,000 after buying an additional 38,458 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.69% of the company’s stock.

iShares MSCI Brazil ETF Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of EWZ stock traded up $0.29 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $35.10. The stock had a trading volume of 31,512,998 shares, compared to its average volume of 33,991,207. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $37.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $36.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.24 billion, a PE ratio of 9.58 and a beta of 0.61. iShares MSCI Brazil ETF has a 52-week low of $26.30 and a 52-week high of $42.02.

iShares MSCI Brazil ETF Company Profile

iShares MSCI Brazil Capped Index Fund (the Fund), formerly iShares MSCI Brazil Index Fund, seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of publicly traded securities in the Brazilian market, as measured by the MSCI Brazil Index (the Index). The Index seeks to measure the performance of the Brazilian equity market. It is a capitalization-weighted index that aims to capture 85% of the (publicly available) total market capitalization.