First Trust Mid Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund (NASDAQ:FNK) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Key Points

• Short interest surged 1,862.1% to 18,267 shares as of October 15, up from 931 shares on September 30. Short interest represented 0.5% of shares outstanding, with a days-to-cover ratio of 0.7.
• FNK shares traded at $63.07, near their 52-week high of $65.14, with a market capitalization of approximately $236.5 million and a beta of 0.97.
• The fund increased its quarterly dividend to $0.2757 per share, equivalent to an annualized payout of $1.10 and a 1.7% yield; several institutional investors also added to or initiated positions.

First Trust Mid Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund (NASDAQ:FNK - ) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totaling 18,267 shares, an increase of 1,862.1% from the September 30th total of 931 shares. Currently, 0.5% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 26,011 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 0.7 days.

First Trust Mid Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FNK traded up $0.21 during trading on Monday, reaching $63.07. The company had a trading volume of 6,570 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,555. First Trust Mid Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund has a fifty-two week low of $51.98 and a fifty-two week high of $65.14. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $62.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $60.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $236.51 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.44 and a beta of 0.97.

First Trust Mid Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 24th were given a dividend of $0.2757 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 24th. This is a positive change from First Trust Mid Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund's previous quarterly dividend of $0.1676. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.7%.

Institutional Trading of First Trust Mid Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FNK. RFG Advisory LLC bought a new position in First Trust Mid Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund during the second quarter worth $202,000. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in First Trust Mid Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund by 17.3% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 105,572 shares of the company's stock worth $6,026,000 after acquiring an additional 15,551 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC bought a new stake in First Trust Mid Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund in the 1st quarter valued at about $110,000. Bessemer Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of First Trust Mid Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund during the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Kestra Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of First Trust Mid Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund by 23.5% in the 1st quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 10,335 shares of the company's stock worth $590,000 after purchasing an additional 1,966 shares in the last quarter.

First Trust Mid Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund Company Profile

The First Trust Mid Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund (FNK) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the NASDAQ AlphaDEX Mid Cap Value index. The fund tracks a mid-cap index that selects value stocks using quant methodology and applies an equal-tiered weighting scheme. FNK was launched on Apr 18, 2011 and is managed by First Trust.

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