Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NASDAQ:TLT)

iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NASDAQ:TLT) saw some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders bought 859,126 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 46% compared to the average volume of 588,208 call options.

iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of TLT traded up $1.47 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $86.76. 54,021,697 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 37,039,445. iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF has a fifty-two week low of $84.89 and a fifty-two week high of $101.64. The business’s 50 day moving average is $89.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $93.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $50.81 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.14 and a beta of 0.06.

iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a monthly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 18th were paid a dividend of $0.351 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 18th. This is an increase from iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF’s previous monthly dividend of $0.31. This represents a $4.21 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.85%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TLT. Fund Evaluation Group LLC purchased a new position in iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF in the 2nd quarter valued at $232,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF by 8.6% during the second quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 28,183 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $2,587,000 after acquiring an additional 2,238 shares during the period. WealthPLAN Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. WealthPLAN Partners LLC now owns 14,819 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $1,360,000 after purchasing an additional 281 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc. grew its position in iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF by 17.5% during the second quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 9,012 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $827,000 after buying an additional 1,341 shares during the period. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $14,929,000. 73.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF

iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (the Fund) is an exchange-traded fund. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of United States Treasury bonds with remaining maturities greater than 20 years. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Barclays U.S. 20+ Year Treasury Bond Index (the Underlying Index), which measures the performance of public obligations of the United States Treasury that have a remaining maturity of 20 or more years.