iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF (BATS:EFAV) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF (BATS:EFAV) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totaling 831,541 shares, an increase of 657.7% from the July 15th total of 109,740 shares. Currently, 1.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 657,129 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.3 days.

iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF Stock Performance

Shares of BATS:EFAV opened at $93.37 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $90.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $91.07. iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF has a fifty-two week low of $83.36 and a fifty-two week high of $95.13. The firm has a market cap of $6.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.91 and a beta of 0.57.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in EFAV. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,310,102 shares of the company’s stock worth $199,246,000 after buying an additional 190,252 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF by 32.6% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 767,283 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,520,000 after buying an additional 188,461 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG grew its holdings in iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 712,195 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,416,000 after buying an additional 61,925 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. grew its holdings in iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 633,870 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,766,000 after buying an additional 10,997 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its stake in iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 439,656 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,957,000 after acquiring an additional 19,227 shares during the last quarter.

About iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF

The iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF (EFAV) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the MSCI EAFE Minimum Volatility (USD) index. The fund tracks an index of developed-market equities, ex-US and Canada, selected and weighted to create a low volatility portfolio subject to constraints including sector exposure. EFAV was launched on Oct 18, 2011 and is managed by BlackRock.