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

Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLU) saw unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Investors bought 178,841 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 633% compared to the average volume of 24,392 call options.

Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund Stock Down 2.2%

XLU stock traded down $0.94 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $42.25. 15,148,729 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,720,781. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.74 and a beta of 0.59. Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund has a twelve month low of $35.51 and a twelve month high of $46.88. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.12.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund by 103.0% in the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 9,087,078 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $742,051,000 after buying an additional 4,610,697 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund by 157.6% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,511,968 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $306,279,000 after purchasing an additional 2,148,792 shares in the last quarter. Menora Mivtachim Holdings LTD. boosted its holdings in shares of Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Menora Mivtachim Holdings LTD. now owns 3,202,194 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $279,263,000 after purchasing an additional 14,000 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund by 82.0% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 3,176,383 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $277,012,000 after purchasing an additional 1,431,115 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,834,692 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $247,260,000 after acquiring an additional 115,555 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.06% of the company’s stock.

About Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund

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.