A typically lightly traded ETF, IHI (iShares U.S. Medical Devices, Expense Ratio 0.48%) is registering new highs lately, and attracting eye – opening trading volume as well.
With a respectable asset base of about $562 million, IHI typically averages about 85,000 shares traded daily, but last Thursday we watched nearly 1 million shares change hands in one session and the fund has seen at least $90 million in new assets flow in lately.
In the Medical Devices/Equipment space, IHI has a notable advantage over another fund in the space in terms of asset size, as XHE (SPDR S&P Health Care Equipment, Expense Ratio 0.35%) only has about $27 million in assets under management.
Examining IHI closer, we see top holdings of MDT (11.11%), TMO (8.25%), COV (8.04%), ISRG (6.56%), and SYK (6.09%), companies which are all slated to release their quarterly earnings reports between 1/22 and 2/18 and each of these individual stocks are flirting with recent highs as well.
We look at the individual charts of MDT and ISRG for instance with interest, particularly because of the recent spikes in trading volume accompanied with intraday volatility that is well out of the norm for these names.