iShares MSCI Brazil ETF Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSEARCA:EWZ)

iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (NYSEARCA:EWZ) was the target of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock investors bought 264,107 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 86% compared to the average volume of 141,917 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On iShares MSCI Brazil ETF

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 586.9% in the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 328,458 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $10,486,000 after purchasing an additional 280,639 shares in the last quarter. Spectrum Asset Management Inc. NB CA boosted its position in iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 16.0% during the 4th quarter. Spectrum Asset Management Inc. NB CA now owns 95,984 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $3,060,000 after acquiring an additional 13,245 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in iShares MSCI Brazil ETF in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $3,065,000. Revisor Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 359.6% during the fourth quarter. Revisor Wealth Management LLC now owns 34,990 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $1,215,000 after acquiring an additional 27,377 shares during the period. Finally, Cercano Management LLC bought a new position in shares of iShares MSCI Brazil ETF in the fourth quarter valued at about $15,598,000. 72.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

iShares MSCI Brazil ETF Trading Up 0.1%

NYSEARCA EWZ traded up $0.05 on Thursday, reaching $36.16. 3,083,039 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 30,056,818. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.15 billion, a PE ratio of 9.58 and a beta of 0.61. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.93. iShares MSCI Brazil ETF has a one year low of $27.33 and a one year 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.