Tesla Gets a Big ETF Promotion

Elon Musk's Tesla TSLA, the electric car maker whose shares have more than tripled this year, is going to be found in more ETFs after NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes announced the stock will replace Oracle ORCL as a member of the Nasdaq 100. Enterprise software maker is leaving the Nasdaq 100 because it is switching to a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Oracle becomes the largest company by market value to make an exchange switch. California-based Tesla will become a component of the NASDAQ-100 Index NDX and the NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index NDXE prior to market open on Monday, July 15, according to a statement issued by NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes. That means Tesla will become a member of the PowerShares QQQ QQQ, the NASDAQ 100 tracking ETF. Oracle is currently the fourth-largest member of the cap-weighted QQQ with a weight of 4.25 percent. Based on Tesla's market value of $14.05 billion at Monday's close, the stock would receive a larger weight in QQQ if it entered the ETF today than current holdings such as Wynn Resorts WYNN, KLA-Tencor KLAC and Expedia EXPE, just to name a few. Since Tesla will also be included in the NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index, the stock will also likely become part of the First Trust NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index Fund QQEW and the Direxion NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index Shares QQQE. Some ETFs have already been benefiting from holding Tesla, a trend that could continue as fund managers that benchmark to the NASDAQ 100 are forced to scoop up the stock. Those ETFs include the First Trust NASDAQ® Clean Edge Green Energy Index Fund QCLN and the Market Vectors Global Alternative Energy ETF GEX. GEX and QCLN have weights of 11.8 and 9.4 percent, respectively, to Tesla. Then there is the PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio PBW, which has been previously been referred to as the Elon Musk ETF because the fund features exposure to Tesla and Musk's other company, SolarCity SCTY. For more on ETFs, click here.