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

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

Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund Trading Up 0.6%

NYSEARCA:XLU traded up $0.24 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $41.56. The company had a trading volume of 13,809,413 shares, compared to its average volume of 23,077,428. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.74 and a beta of 0.57. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $43.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $44.98. Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund has a 12-month low of $41.15 and a 12-month high of $47.80.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of XLU. LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund by 106.2% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 15,178,321 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $647,962,000 after acquiring an additional 7,817,477 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings in shares of Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund by 97.5% in the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 3,022,842 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $129,045,000 after acquiring an additional 1,492,404 shares during the period. Electron Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund in the first quarter valued at $56,915,000. BW Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. purchased a new stake in Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $49,094,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund by 3.9% during the first 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 purchasing an additional 1,055,742 shares during 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.