Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on iShares Select Dividend ETF (NASDAQ:DVY)

iShares Select Dividend ETF (NASDAQ:DVY) saw unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors purchased 14,890 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 2,588% compared to the typical volume of 554 call options.

iShares Select Dividend ETF Price Performance

NASDAQ DVY traded up $0.28 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $163.27. 333,345 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 485,335. iShares Select Dividend ETF has a 52-week low of $132.83 and a 52-week high of $164.73. The firm has a market cap of $23.77 billion, a PE ratio of 13.69 and a beta of 0.66. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $156.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $153.58.

iShares Select Dividend ETF Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a dividend of $1.2472 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This is a positive change from iShares Select Dividend ETF’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. This represents a $4.99 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.1%.

Institutional Trading of iShares Select Dividend ETF

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Morgan Stanley increased its position in iShares Select Dividend ETF by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 6,506,794 shares of the company’s stock valued at $918,369,000 after buying an additional 224,125 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in iShares Select Dividend ETF by 1,771.5% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 6,385,482 shares of the company’s stock worth $901,247,000 after acquiring an additional 6,044,290 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its holdings in iShares Select Dividend ETF by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 3,807,955 shares of the company’s stock worth $537,455,000 after acquiring an additional 69,658 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in shares of iShares Select Dividend ETF by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 3,073,777 shares of the company’s stock worth $433,832,000 after acquiring an additional 114,490 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of iShares Select Dividend ETF by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 1,789,466 shares of the company’s stock worth $252,565,000 after acquiring an additional 65,691 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.08% of the company’s stock.

iShares Select Dividend ETF Company Profile

iShares Select Dividend ETF, formerly iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index Fund (the Fund), is an exchange-traded fund. The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index (the Index). The Index measures the performance of a selected group of equity securities issued by companies that have provided relatively high dividend yields on a consistent basis over time. The Index consists of 100 of the highest dividend-yielding securities (excluding real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the Dow Jones U.S.