Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund Put Options (NYSEARCA:XLB)

Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLB) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 200,591 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 334% compared to the average volume of 46,178 put options.

Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund Stock Performance

Shares of XLB opened at $50.46 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $50.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $46.96. Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund has a 52-week low of $36.56 and a 52-week high of $54.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.27 billion, a PE ratio of 24.55 and a beta of 1.03.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund by 102.4% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 156,400 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $13,734,000 after purchasing an additional 6,721,929 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund by 112.6% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 7,499,014 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $340,080,000 after purchasing an additional 3,972,016 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund by 99.7% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,210,960 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $236,317,000 after buying an additional 2,601,880 shares during the period. Main Management ETF Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund during the fourth quarter worth about $72,742,000. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its holdings in shares of Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund by 97.4% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 2,407,870 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $109,197,000 after buying an additional 1,188,168 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.78% of the company’s stock.

About Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund

Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund (the Fund) seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Materials Select Sector Index (the Index). The Index includes companies involved in such industries as chemicals; metals and mining; paper and forest products; containers and packaging, and construction materials. The Fund’s investment advisor is SSgA Funds Management, Inc