Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (NYSEARCA:EFA)

iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (NYSEARCA:EFA) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Traders bought 254,384 call options on the company. This is an increase of 259% compared to the average volume of 70,938 call options.

iShares MSCI EAFE ETF Stock Up 0.3%

iShares MSCI EAFE ETF stock traded up $0.29 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $105.02. 14,219,922 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,129,324. iShares MSCI EAFE ETF has a 12 month low of $85.68 and a 12 month high of $105.94. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $102.64 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $100.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $77.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.48 and a beta of 0.78.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On iShares MSCI EAFE ETF

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in EFA. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in iShares MSCI EAFE ETF by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 40,215,965 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $3,861,939,000 after buying an additional 3,481,849 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of iShares MSCI EAFE ETF by 15.5% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 31,617,599 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $3,036,238,000 after buying an additional 4,244,605 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in iShares MSCI EAFE ETF by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 21,517,515 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $2,066,327,000 after buying an additional 1,041,180 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in iShares MSCI EAFE ETF by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 21,303,587 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $2,045,783,000 after acquiring an additional 205,935 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC boosted its holdings in iShares MSCI EAFE ETF by 13.9% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC now owns 15,736,766 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $1,511,202,000 after acquiring an additional 1,922,902 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.80% of the company’s stock.

iShares MSCI EAFE ETF Company Profile

iShares MSCI EAFE ETF, formerly iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund (the Fund), is an exchange-traded fund. The Fund’s investment objective is to seek investment results that correspond to the price and yield performance of its underlying index, MSCI EAFE Index (the Index). The Index has been developed by MSCI Inc as an equity benchmark for its international stock performance. The Index includes stocks from Europe, Australasia and the Far East. The Fund invests in a representative sample of securities included in the Index that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Index.