Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLB) Short Interest Update

Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLB) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totaling 14,045,172 shares, a drop of 26.5% from the March 31st total of 19,117,831 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 11,922,208 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.2 days. Currently, 9.5% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund Trading Down 0.9%

NYSEARCA XLB traded down $0.44 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $50.96. 7,046,262 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,269,632. Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund has a 1-year low of $41.02 and a 1-year high of $54.14. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $50.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $47.90. The company has a market cap of $7.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.55 and a beta of 0.99.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund by 112.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 7,499,014 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $340,080,000 after buying an additional 3,972,016 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund by 99.7% during the 4th 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 last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 1,188,168 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 1,084,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Market Inc. lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 1,000,420 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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