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

Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLB) was the target of unusually large options trading on Friday. 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 Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in XLB. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund by 112.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 7,499,014 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $340,080,000 after acquiring an additional 3,972,016 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund by 99.7% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,210,960 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $236,317,000 after purchasing an additional 2,601,880 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its position in shares of Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund by 97.4% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 2,407,870 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $109,197,000 after purchasing an additional 1,188,168 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund by 107.5% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 2,093,364 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $94,934,000 after purchasing an additional 1,084,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Market Inc. raised its stake in shares of Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 2,000,940 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $90,743,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000,420 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.78% of the company’s stock.

Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund Stock Performance

NYSEARCA XLB traded down $0.18 during trading on Friday, hitting $49.50. The stock had a trading volume of 10,228,912 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,274,717. The company has a market capitalization of $6.15 billion, a PE ratio of 24.55 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $50.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $46.66. Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund has a 12 month low of $36.56 and a 12 month high of $54.14.

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