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

iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF (NASDAQ:PFF) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 10,100,000 shares, a growth of 20.4% from the October 15th total of 8,390,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 3,541,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.9 days.

iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF Price Performance

Shares of PFF traded down $0.02 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $32.59. 3,298,725 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,020,479. iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF has a twelve month low of $29.83 and a twelve month high of $33.59. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $33.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.51.

iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a monthly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 1st were paid a dividend of $0.1653 per share. This is a boost from iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF’s previous monthly dividend of $0.16. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 1st. This represents a $1.98 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.09%.

Institutional Trading of iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Viewpoint Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF in the second quarter valued at $27,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new position in iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF in the 2nd quarter worth about $43,000. First PREMIER Bank acquired a new stake in iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF during the 3rd quarter worth about $53,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets purchased a new stake in iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF during the third quarter valued at about $67,000. Finally, Eastern Bank acquired a new position in shares of iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF in the third quarter worth about $71,000. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.