Investors Buy High Volume of Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund Put Options (NYSEARCA:XLB)

Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLB) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders purchased 247,446 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 450% compared to the average daily volume of 44,979 put options.

Institutional Trading of Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. IAM Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund by 19.1% during the 3rd quarter. IAM Advisory LLC now owns 4,457 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $399,000 after buying an additional 715 shares during the period. Encompass More Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund during the third quarter worth about $221,000. CWC Advisors LLC. lifted its stake in shares of Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund by 3.5% in the third quarter. CWC Advisors LLC. now owns 12,338 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $1,106,000 after acquiring an additional 416 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund by 7.9% in the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 137,124 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $12,041,000 after acquiring an additional 10,007 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caldwell Trust Co bought a new stake in Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund in the second quarter valued at approximately $358,000. 75.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund Trading Down 0.4%

NYSEARCA:XLB traded down $0.18 on Friday, hitting $49.50. The company had a trading volume of 10,228,912 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,274,717. Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund has a 52 week low of $36.56 and a 52 week high of $54.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.55 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $50.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $46.66.

Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund Company Profile

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