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

iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (NYSEARCA:EWZ) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders purchased 371,277 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 72% compared to the typical volume of 215,545 call options.

iShares MSCI Brazil ETF Stock Down 2.3%

EWZ opened at $37.37 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $8.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.58 and a beta of 0.62. iShares MSCI Brazil ETF has a twelve month low of $28.66 and a twelve month high of $42.02. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $36.21 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $36.64.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On iShares MSCI Brazil ETF

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of EWZ. Bank of Nova Scotia grew its holdings in iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 10,490.4% during the first quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 5,507,028 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $211,416,000 after purchasing an additional 5,455,028 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 12,304.8% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,119,561 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $119,760,000 after buying an additional 3,094,413 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of iShares MSCI Brazil ETF during the 1st quarter valued at $108,733,000. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 645.6% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 2,344,250 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $89,996,000 after buying an additional 2,029,838 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Temasek Holdings Private Ltd bought a new position in shares of iShares MSCI Brazil ETF during the 1st quarter worth $41,339,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.69% of the company’s stock.

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.