First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund (NASDAQ:FEP) Stock Short Interest Climbs 187.4%

First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund (NASDAQ:FEP) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totaling 177,042 shares, an increase of 187.4% from the September 15th total of 61,611 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 55,850 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.2 days. Currently, 2.0% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in shares of First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund by 52.5% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,079,715 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,963,000 after buying an additional 371,900 shares during the last quarter. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund by 112.7% during the first quarter. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC now owns 49,250 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,690,000 after buying an additional 26,096 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new position in shares of First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund during the first quarter valued at approximately $1,283,000. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund by 9.0% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 120,815 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,598,000 after acquiring an additional 9,965 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund by 3.1% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 298,459 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,027,000 after acquiring an additional 9,002 shares in the last quarter.

First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund Price Performance

Shares of First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund stock opened at $56.28 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $58.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $495.26 million, a P/E ratio of -85.27 and a beta of 0.90. First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund has a one year low of $49.11 and a one year high of $61.07.

First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 24th were issued a $0.3254 dividend. This is a negative change from First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.7986. This represents a $1.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 24th. First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -263.64%.

About First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund

The First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund (FEP) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the NASDAQ AlphaDEX Europe index. The fund tracks a tiered equal-weighted index of 200 companies selected from the S&P Europe BMI based on the S&P’s AlphaDex selection methodology. FEP was launched on Apr 18, 2011 and is managed by First Trust.