Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest buys Tesla stock amid plunge, Musk sells

Elon Musk fan Cathie Wood seized a sizable chunk of Tesla stock (TSLA) late Wednesday after the stock extended a recent skid to its lowest level in more than two years.

ARK Invest, Wood’s investment management firm, snapped up 74,862 shares of the electric-vehicle maker across three of her exchange-traded funds, according to a daily transaction report sent via email. The purchase was valued around $11.7 million, based on Wednesday’s closing price of $156.80.

The snap-up by ARK also comes after Tesla’s own chief executive officer Elon Musk sold approximately 21,995,000 shares of the company, or roughly $3.6 billion worth, during the three-day period ending Dec. 14, a regulatory filing showed after Wednesday’s close.

Cathie Wood on Yahoo Finance.

ARK’s Tesla buy comprised 61,537 shares for the ARK Innovation fund (ARKK), 10,066 for the ARK Autonomous Tech. & Robotics ETF (ARKQ), and 3,259 for the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW). Tesla is the third largest holding among ARK’s suite of investment products after Zoom Communications (ZM) and Exact Sciences (EXAS).

Wood’s dip-buying spree comes during a difficult month amid a difficult year for Tesla as concerns intensify among investors that Musk as CEO diverted his attention away from the company to manage Twitter, the social media platform he recently acquired in a $44 billion take-private deal.

Tesla stock is down more than 19% in December so far and roughly 55% year-to-date. ARK’s flagship ARK Innovation fund (ARKK) is down around 13% this month and 64% on the year.

Much of Musk’s wealth is tied to Tesla shares, and he has now sold nearly $40 billion worth of those shares in 2022.

Neither ARK Invest nor Tesla immediately responded to Yahoo Finance’s requests for comment.

Wood, a longtime Tesla bull who has referred to Musk as ARK’s “renaissance man,” remains unshaken in her conviction. In an interview last week with Yahoo Finance, the ARK founder and CEO said she was not concerned about Musk’s leadership at Tesla.

Goldman Sachs also dealt another blow to Tesla earlier this week when the bank slashed its price target and lowered estimates on Tesla deliveries and gross margins for the fourth quarter, citing the prospect of weakening demand. Goldman maintained its Buy rating and is bullish over the long term.

Elon Musk’s Twitter account displayed on a mobile with Elon Musk in the background are seen in this illustration. In Brussels – Belgium on 19 November 2022. (Photo illustration by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

ARK, like Goldman, remains confident in the company’s long-term delivery prospects. Wood pointed to “loosening supply chains” that place Tesla “at the forefront of being able to drive down costs and prices” to help bring electric vehicles to the mass market.

Wood told Yahoo Finance that “Elon’s main role at Tesla right now is moving it towards an autonomous taxi platform, which I think will happen in 2024. I think he thinks it will happen next year. I think he’s as focused as ever on that.”

Elsewhere in ARK’s shopping cart were 296,578 shares of Coinbase (COIN) across ARK Innovation (ARKK), ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), and ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF). The firm has been steadily purchasing shares of the cryptocurrency exchange, even as the stock gets battered amid turmoil in cryptoworld over the collapse of FTX.

—

Alexandra Semenova is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alexandraandnyc

Click here for the latest trending stock tickers of the Yahoo Finance platform

Click here for the latest stock market news and in-depth analysis, including events that move stocks

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

Download the Yahoo Finance app for Apple or Android

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, and YouTube