Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSEARCA:IWM)

iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSEARCA:IWM) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders bought 1,873,708 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 40% compared to the average daily volume of 1,338,701 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in iShares Russell 2000 ETF by 113,180.6% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 334,806,395 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $58,376,843,000 after acquiring an additional 334,510,840 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of iShares Russell 2000 ETF by 34.8% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 19,634,415 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $3,470,187,000 after buying an additional 5,063,767 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its position in shares of iShares Russell 2000 ETF by 11.1% in the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 11,206,000 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $1,980,548,000 after buying an additional 1,115,400 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of iShares Russell 2000 ETF by 84.1% in the 4th quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 8,584,687 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $1,723,033,000 after buying an additional 3,921,131 shares during the period. Finally, Empower Advisory Group LLC grew its position in shares of iShares Russell 2000 ETF by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 7,445,800 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $1,315,971,000 after buying an additional 33,773 shares during the period.

iShares Russell 2000 ETF Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSEARCA IWM opened at $192.79 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $202.93 and a 200-day moving average price of $190.68. iShares Russell 2000 ETF has a 1 year low of $161.67 and a 1 year high of $211.88.

iShares Russell 2000 ETF Company Profile

iShares Russell 2000 ETF (the Fund) is an exchange-traded fund. The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Russell 2000 Index (the Index). The Index is a float-adjusted capitalization weighted index that measures the performance of the small-capitalization sector of the United States equity market and includes securities issued by the approximately 2,000 smallest issuers in the Russell 3000 Index.