First Trust Japan AlphaDEX Fund (NASDAQ:FJP) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Key Points

• Short interest surged 602.1% in March to 22,003 shares as of March 31, equal to 0.7% of shares outstanding and a short-interest ratio of 1.4 days based on average volume.
• The fund cut its quarterly dividend, paying $0.1139 per share on March 31 (annualized $0.46, a 0.6% yield).
• Shares traded down to $76.00 (‑0.2%) with a market cap of $243.2 million and a P/E of 10.49, and several institutional investors have modestly increased positions recently.

First Trust Japan AlphaDEX Fund (NASDAQ:FJP - ) saw a significant growth in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 22,003 shares, a growth of 602.1% from the March 15th total of 3,134 shares. Currently, 0.7% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 15,580 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.4 days.

First Trust Japan AlphaDEX Fund Trading Down 0.2%

FJP traded down $0.19 during trading on Friday, hitting $76.00. 7,424 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 13,471. The company has a market cap of $243.20 million, a PE ratio of 10.49 and a beta of 0.58. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $75.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $70.33. First Trust Japan AlphaDEX Fund has a 1 year low of $50.95 and a 1 year high of $82.45.

First Trust Japan AlphaDEX Fund Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Thursday, March 26th were paid a dividend of $0.1139 per share. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 26th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On First Trust Japan AlphaDEX Fund

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FJP. Rossby Financial LCC lifted its position in First Trust Japan AlphaDEX Fund by 32.7% during the third quarter. Rossby Financial LCC now owns 755 shares of the company's stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Mariner LLC bought a new position in First Trust Japan AlphaDEX Fund during the fourth quarter valued at $217,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. lifted its position in First Trust Japan AlphaDEX Fund by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 3,379 shares of the company's stock valued at $227,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. BlueChip Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in First Trust Japan AlphaDEX Fund by 7.2% during the third quarter. BlueChip Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,717 shares of the company's stock valued at $242,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FSB Premier Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in First Trust Japan AlphaDEX Fund by 8.8% during the second quarter. FSB Premier Wealth Management Inc. now owns 4,130 shares of the company's stock valued at $247,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the last quarter.

About First Trust Japan AlphaDEX Fund

The First Trust Japan AlphaDEX Fund (FJP) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the NASDAQ AlphaDEX Japan index. The fund tracks a tiered equal-weighted index of Japanese equities selected using both growth and value screens. FJP was launched on Apr 18, 2011 and is managed by First Trust.

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