Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of iShares MSCI South Korea ETF Call Options (NYSEARCA:EWY)

iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (NYSEARCA:EWY) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 53,018 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 53% compared to the average volume of 34,638 call options.

iShares MSCI South Korea ETF Stock Down 6.4%

Shares of NYSEARCA:EWY opened at $125.74 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $121.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $98.21. iShares MSCI South Korea ETF has a 12-month low of $48.49 and a 12-month high of $154.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.35 and a beta of 1.22.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in shares of iShares MSCI South Korea ETF by 1,753.0% during the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,296,271 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $93,047,000 after purchasing an additional 1,226,315 shares in the last quarter. Yacktman Asset Management LP acquired a new position in iShares MSCI South Korea ETF in the fourth quarter worth approximately $111,279,000. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its position in iShares MSCI South Korea ETF by 31,122.4% during the second quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,065,620 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $75,382,000 after acquiring an additional 1,062,207 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in iShares MSCI South Korea ETF by 4,532.1% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,066,257 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $76,536,000 after acquiring an additional 1,043,238 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Temasek Holdings Private Ltd lifted its stake in iShares MSCI South Korea ETF by 116.6% in the fourth quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 1,594,998 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $155,066,000 after acquiring an additional 858,598 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.22% of the company’s stock.

iShares MSCI South Korea ETF Company Profile

iShares MSCI South Korea Capped ETF (the Fund) is an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the MSCI Korea 25/50 Index (the Index). The Index consists of stocks traded primarily on the Stock Market Division of the Korean Exchange. The Index is a free-float adjusted market capitalization weighted index with a capping methodology applied to issuer weights so that no issuer of a component exceeds 25% of the Index weight and all issuers with weight above 5% do not exceed 50% of the Index weight.