First Trust Emerging Markets AlphaDEX Fund (NASDAQ:FEM) Sees Large Decrease in Short Interest

Key Points

• Short interest plunged 91.1% to 77,344 shares as of April 15 (from 864,569 on March 31), representing about 0.3% of shares outstanding and a short-interest ratio of 0.4 days.
• Several large institutions increased their stakes in FEM, notably Morgan Stanley (+1.7% to 2,390,271 shares) and LPL Financial (+9.7% to 1,375,536 shares), alongside boosts from Bank of America and UBS.
• The fund recently paid a modest quarterly dividend of $0.0334 (annualized $0.13, a 0.4% yield) while shares traded up about 1.5% to $32.88, with a market cap near $739.8 million and a P/E of 9.2.

First Trust Emerging Markets AlphaDEX Fund (NASDAQ:FEM - ) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totaling 77,344 shares, a drop of 91.1% from the March 31st total of 864,569 shares. Approximately 0.3% of the company's stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 192,223 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.4 days.

Institutional Trading of First Trust Emerging Markets AlphaDEX Fund

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in First Trust Emerging Markets AlphaDEX Fund by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,390,271 shares of the company's stock valued at $65,374,000 after purchasing an additional 39,545 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in First Trust Emerging Markets AlphaDEX Fund by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 1,375,536 shares of the company's stock valued at $37,621,000 after purchasing an additional 122,038 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in First Trust Emerging Markets AlphaDEX Fund by 2.9% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,054,665 shares of the company's stock valued at $25,903,000 after purchasing an additional 29,240 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG boosted its position in First Trust Emerging Markets AlphaDEX Fund by 21.7% during the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 641,416 shares of the company's stock valued at $17,382,000 after purchasing an additional 114,386 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management boosted its position in First Trust Emerging Markets AlphaDEX Fund by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 605,433 shares of the company's stock valued at $16,559,000 after purchasing an additional 3,711 shares during the last quarter.

First Trust Emerging Markets AlphaDEX Fund Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of First Trust Emerging Markets AlphaDEX Fund stock traded up $0.47 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $32.88. The company's stock had a trading volume of 80,641 shares, compared to its average volume of 157,801. The firm has a market capitalization of $739.80 million, a P/E ratio of 9.20 and a beta of 0.58. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.80. First Trust Emerging Markets AlphaDEX Fund has a 1-year low of $22.46 and a 1-year high of $33.07.

First Trust Emerging Markets AlphaDEX Fund Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 26th were given a $0.0334 dividend. This represents a $0.13 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 26th.

First Trust Emerging Markets AlphaDEX Fund Company Profile

The First Trust Emerging Markets AlphaDEX Fund (FEM) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the NASDAQ AlphaDEX EM index. The fund tracks an index of emerging markets companies selected using a quantitative methodology and weighted in tiers. FEM was launched on Apr 18, 2011 and is managed by First Trust.

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