Cathie Wood Trims Stake In This Warren Buffett-Backed Automaker And Laps Up Another $5M In Tesla

Cathie Wood-led Ark Investment Management on Monday sold shares in Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD Co BYDDY for the first time in nine months and scooped up more shares in Elon Musk-led Tesla Inc TSLA.

St. Petersburg, Florida-based Ark Invest sold 80,725 shares, estimated to be worth $6.17 million on their last closing price, in Shenzhen-headquartered BYD. 

Shares of the company closed 4.6% higher at $76.48 on Monday. The stock is up 9.7% so far this year.

BYD, backed by Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) Chairman Warren Buffett, in April stopped producing internal combustion engine vehicles and said it will focus on making new energy vehicles.

BYD is reportedly exploring buying six lithium mines in Africa. 

In May, BYD sold nearly twice as many EVs as the combined delivery volumes of rivals Nio Inc NIO, Xpeng Inc XPEV, and Li Auto LI despite a two-month COVID-19 lockdown that disrupted supply chains and hit production in Shanghai. 

Tesla is yet to report monthly numbers in China.

See Also: Warren Buffett-Backed BYD Continues To Outperform EV Rivals In May

Ark Invest held 443,831 shares, worth $32.4 million, in BYD solely via its Ark Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF ARKQ before Monday's trade. It also bought 7,700 shares, estimated to be worth $5.5 million, in Tesla on Monday.

Tesla shares closed 1.6% higher at $714.8 on Monday but are down 40% year-to-date.

The investment firm held 1.3 million shares, worth $919.4 million in Tesla, before Monday’s trade.