Traders Purchase Large Volume of iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF Call Options (NASDAQ:TLT)

iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NASDAQ:TLT) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 859,126 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 46% compared to the typical daily volume of 588,208 call options.

iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF Trading Up 1.7 %

NASDAQ:TLT traded up $1.47 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $86.76. The stock had a trading volume of 54,021,697 shares, compared to its average volume of 37,039,445. iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF has a twelve month low of $84.89 and a twelve month high of $101.64. The company has a market capitalization of $50.81 billion, a PE ratio of -7.14 and a beta of 0.06. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $89.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $93.62.

iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a monthly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 18th were given a dividend of $0.351 per share. This is a boost from iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF’s previous monthly dividend of $0.31. This represents a $4.21 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 18th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF by 45.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 88,273 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $8,660,000 after buying an additional 27,586 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its position in shares of iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF by 99.7% during the third quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 72,263 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $7,089,000 after purchasing an additional 36,070 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC lifted its stake in iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF by 11.5% in the second quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 24,583 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $2,256,000 after buying an additional 2,541 shares during the last quarter. Full Sail Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF by 5.3% in the second quarter. Full Sail Capital LLC now owns 70,398 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $6,461,000 after acquiring an additional 3,530 shares during the period. Finally, Commerce Bank boosted its holdings in shares of iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF by 32.7% in the third quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 9,840 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $965,000 after acquiring an additional 2,426 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.32% of the company’s stock.

About iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF

iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (the Fund) is an exchange-traded fund. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of United States Treasury bonds with remaining maturities greater than 20 years. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Barclays U.S. 20+ Year Treasury Bond Index (the Underlying Index), which measures the performance of public obligations of the United States Treasury that have a remaining maturity of 20 or more years.