iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (NYSEARCA:EWY) Stock Sees Heavy Call Option Buying

iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (NYSEARCA:EWY) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors acquired 227,037 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 120% compared to the average volume of 103,055 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in iShares MSCI South Korea ETF by 102.5% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 10,928,797 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $1,344,351,000 after buying an additional 5,532,980 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its stake in shares of iShares MSCI South Korea ETF by 1,764.2% in the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,897,337 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $184,457,000 after buying an additional 1,795,557 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its stake in iShares MSCI South Korea ETF by 135.8% during the 1st quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 1,823,820 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $224,348,000 after buying an additional 1,050,220 shares during the period. Main Street Research LLC boosted its position in iShares MSCI South Korea ETF by 1.8% during the first quarter. Main Street Research LLC now owns 361,874 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $44,514,000 after purchasing an additional 6,413 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in iShares MSCI South Korea ETF by 368.1% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 303,408 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $61,258,000 after acquiring an additional 238,591 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.22% of the company’s stock.

iShares MSCI South Korea ETF Price Performance

NYSEARCA:EWY traded up $4.69 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $157.41. The stock had a trading volume of 6,629,422 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,865,672. The company has a market capitalization of $22.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.35 and a beta of 1.51. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $176.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $161.09. iShares MSCI South Korea ETF has a 1-year low of $86.90 and a 1-year high of $220.89.

About iShares MSCI South Korea ETF

iShares MSCI South Korea Capped ETF (the Fund) is an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the MSCI Korea 25/50 Index (the Index). The Index consists of stocks traded primarily on the Stock Market Division of the Korean Exchange. The Index is a free-float adjusted market capitalization weighted index with a capping methodology applied to issuer weights so that no issuer of a component exceeds 25% of the Index weight and all issuers with weight above 5% do not exceed 50% of the Index weight.