Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (NYSEARCA:EWZ)

iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (NYSEARCA:EWZ) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders acquired 297,106 call options on the company. This is an increase of 42% compared to the typical daily volume of 209,563 call options.

Institutional Trading of iShares MSCI Brazil ETF

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EWZ. MKP Capital Management L.L.C. raised its stake in shares of iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. MKP Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 2,286,900 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $72,655,000 after purchasing an additional 66,900 shares during the last quarter. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. boosted its position in shares of iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 19.2% during the fourth quarter. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. now owns 2,218,204 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $70,457,000 after buying an additional 357,853 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 71.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,110,619 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $65,429,000 after buying an additional 879,500 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd bought a new stake in iShares MSCI Brazil ETF during the fourth quarter worth $65,840,000. Finally, Nan Fung Trinity HK Ltd. grew its holdings in iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 136.7% during the third quarter. Nan Fung Trinity HK Ltd. now owns 2,005,000 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $62,155,000 after buying an additional 1,157,900 shares in the last quarter. 72.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

iShares MSCI Brazil ETF Price Performance

Shares of NYSEARCA:EWZ traded down $1.35 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $35.15. 24,603,257 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 39,124,691. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $36.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $33.28. The company has a market cap of $8.30 billion, a PE ratio of 9.58 and a beta of 0.87. iShares MSCI Brazil ETF has a 12 month low of $23.05 and a 12 month high of $39.69.

About iShares MSCI Brazil ETF

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.