Cathie Wood Laps Up $16M In Tesla, Marking 2nd Straight Buy As Stock Slumps Another 7%

Cathie Wood-led Ark Invest scooped up more shares in Tesla Inc TSLA on Tuesday, a day after the money managing firm resumed buying shares in the Elon Musk-led company. The stock has plunged 37% in a month in the backdrop of production issues in China and the billionaire entrepreneur’s bid to buy Twitter Inc TWTR for $44 billion.

The popular money managing firm bought 26,081 shares — estimated to be worth $16.38 million— in the Austin, Texas headquartered electric vehicle maker.

Tesla shares closed 6.9% lower at $628.16 on Monday, sinking to their lowest levels since June. The stock has declined over 37% over the past month and over 45% since April 4, when Musk revealed a significant stake in Twitter.

Ark Invest had been booking profits in its Tesla stake since late February before the EV maker was hit by strict COVID-19 curbs in Shanghai, until Monday, when it resumed buying.

See Also: Cathie Wood Scoops Up $10M In Tesla As Stock Crashes 32% In A Month

Growing competition in the sector and Musk’s Twitter ‘circus show’ and ‘soap opera' too have contributed to the stock weakness, according to some analysts.

St. Petersburg, Florida-based Ark Invest owns shares in Tesla through three of its six actively traded exchange funds: Ark Innovation ETF ARKK, Ark Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF ARKQ, and Ark Next Generation Internet ETF ARKW.

The three ETFs held 1.29 million shares worth $873 million in Tesla before Tuesday’s trade. 

The value of Tesla holdings that Ark Invest owns has shrunk by more than half since the beginning of the year.

Long-time Tesla bull Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, last week lowered his price target for Tesla to $1,000 from $1,400, citing the issues in China. 

The analyst also believes Musk’s 'circus show' with respect to the Twitter acquisition has been a major overhang on Tesla's stock and a black eye for Musk for the way he has handled the “spiraling situation.”

See Also: Tesla Bull Cathie Wood Says Bet Against 'Disruptive Innovation' Will Prove Ill-informed, Ill-timed