Traders Buy Large Volume of Put Options on Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLU)

Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLU) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock traders bought 61,581 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 67% compared to the typical volume of 36,961 put options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. LPL Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund by 106.2% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 15,178,321 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $647,962,000 after purchasing an additional 7,817,477 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its holdings in shares of Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund by 97.5% in the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 3,022,842 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $129,045,000 after purchasing an additional 1,492,404 shares in the last quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund in the first quarter valued at approximately $56,915,000. BW Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. purchased a new stake in Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund during the 4th quarter worth approximately $49,094,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 28,041,814 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $1,286,839,000 after buying an additional 1,055,742 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.06% of the company’s stock.

Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund Trading Up 0.6%

NYSEARCA XLU traded up $0.24 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $41.56. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 13,809,413 shares, compared to its average volume of 23,077,428. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $43.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $44.98. Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund has a 52 week low of $41.15 and a 52 week high of $47.80. The stock has a market cap of $21.20 billion, a PE ratio of 20.74 and a beta of 0.57.

Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund Company Profile

Select Sector Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (the Fund), formerly Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund, seeks to provide investment results that correspond to the price and yield performance of the Utilities Select Sector of the S&P 500 Index (the Index). The Index includes companies from industries, such as electric utilities, multi-utilities, independent power producers and energy traders, and gas utilities. The Fund utilizes a passive or indexing investment approach to attempt to approximate the investment performance of the Index.