Short Interest in Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLF) Rises By 26.6%

Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLF) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 150,865,446 shares, an increase of 26.6% from the February 26th total of 119,121,653 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 67,116,440 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.2 days. Approximately 14.6% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund Trading Up 1.5%

Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund stock traded up $0.70 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $48.51. The stock had a trading volume of 29,350,755 shares, compared to its average volume of 55,380,387. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $51.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.92. The company has a market capitalization of $50.19 billion, a PE ratio of 18.25 and a beta of 0.99. Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund has a 52-week low of $42.21 and a 52-week high of $56.51.

Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 23rd were given a $0.2515 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 23rd. This is an increase from Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. This represents a $1.01 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%.

Institutional Trading of Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund by 16.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 133,084,547 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $7,169,265,000 after buying an additional 18,724,516 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in shares of Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund by 22.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 80,614,166 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $4,415,238,000 after acquiring an additional 15,014,591 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund by 20.2% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 22,039,582 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $1,187,272,000 after acquiring an additional 3,697,754 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund by 20.3% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 16,288,590 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $892,126,000 after acquiring an additional 2,753,084 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund by 23.2% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,244,098 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $767,375,000 after purchasing an additional 2,682,361 shares in the last quarter. 72.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund

The Fund seeks to provide investors with a low-cost passive approach for investing in a portfolio of equity securities of firms as represented by the Financial Select Sector Index.