iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF (NASDAQ:PFF) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF (NASDAQ:PFF) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 7,544,435 shares, a decrease of 34.9% from the February 26th total of 11,580,569 shares. Approximately 1.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 4,604,837 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.6 days.

Institutional Trading of iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. CX Institutional purchased a new position in iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF in the third quarter worth about $571,000. Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its position in iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF by 6.9% during the second quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,001,603 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,729,000 after purchasing an additional 65,031 shares during the period. Fiduciary Alliance LLC purchased a new stake in iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF during the third quarter valued at approximately $748,000. SVB Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,549,000. Finally, Vigilare Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF by 165.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vigilare Wealth Management now owns 29,558 shares of the company’s stock valued at $935,000 after purchasing an additional 18,406 shares during the last quarter. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF Stock Performance

Shares of PFF opened at $30.16 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $31.32 and its 200 day moving average is $31.32. iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF has a fifty-two week low of $28.70 and a fifty-two week high of $32.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.44 billion, a PE ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 0.53.

iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a monthly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 2nd were paid a $0.0312 dividend. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 2nd.

About iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF

iShares U.S. Preferred Stock ETF (the Fund) is an exchange-traded fund. The Fund seeks investment results, which correspond to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (the Underlying Index). The Underlying Index measures the performance of a select group of preferred stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NYSE Arca, Inc (NYSE Arca), NYSE Amex, NASDAQ Global Select Market, NASDAQ Select Market or NASDAQ Capital Market. The Underlying Index includes preferred stocks with a market capitalization over $100 million, which meet minimum price, liquidity, trading volume, maturity and other requirements determined by Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC, a subsidiary of The McGraw Hill Companies (S&P).