Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (NYSEARCA:EWZ)

iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (NYSEARCA:EWZ) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders bought 317,275 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 44% compared to the average daily volume of 220,591 call options.

iShares MSCI Brazil ETF Trading Up 1.9%

NYSEARCA:EWZ opened at $41.33 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.58 and a beta of 0.69. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.18. iShares MSCI Brazil ETF has a 12 month low of $24.08 and a 12 month high of $41.33.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On iShares MSCI Brazil ETF

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 18.0% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 344,041 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $8,894,000 after buying an additional 52,532 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 819.7% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,683 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares in the last quarter. CW Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of iShares MSCI Brazil ETF during the second quarter valued at about $243,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 12.8% during the second quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 22,430 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $647,000 after purchasing an additional 2,541 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its position in shares of iShares MSCI Brazil ETF by 105.0% during the second quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 214,300 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $6,183,000 after purchasing an additional 109,761 shares in the last quarter. 72.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.