Baillie Gifford Trimmed Positions In Alibaba, Tesla, Nio, Moderna In Q3, Here's What It Bought Instead

Investment firm Baillie Gifford lowered exposure in Tesla Inc TSLA, Alibaba Group Holding BABA and Nio Inc NIO in the third quarter and snapped up shares in vaccine maker Moderna Inc MRNA and Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings DNA instead, regulatory filings reveal.

What Happened: Baillie Gifford, a 110-year-old asset management firm and an early investor in Tesla, sold 1.99 million shares in the Elon Musk-led electric vehicle maker in the third quarter, reducing its holdings in the company by 12.5% from the previous quarter.

The Scottish firm has been lowering its stake in Tesla over the past few quarters. It still owns about 13.8 million, or about 1.4% of the total, outstanding shares in Tesla as of September end.

The investment firm first bought 2.3 million Tesla shares in early 2013 when the electric vehicle stock was trading under $8.

Tesla shares closed 0.67% lower at $864.27 a share on Tuesday and have risen 18.4% so far this year.

In Alibaba, Baillie Gifford sold 15.75 million shares, lowering its exposure in the Chinese e-commerce giant by 61% in the third quarter. The firm still owned 9.97 million BABA shares at the end of the quarter ended Sept. 30.

Regulatory scrutiny in China has put pressure on Alibaba stock this year. The company's shares have fallen 22% so far this year but closed 6.08% higher at $177 a share on Tuesday.

In Nio, the investment firm sold about 287,255 shares, reducing its holding by 0.3% in the third quarter. Baillie Gifford owned about 90.6 million shares in the Chinese electric vehicle company, which has recently started selling cars in Norway.

Nio shares closed 1.06% higher at $40.03 a share on Tuesday.

The investment firm also trimmed its position in biotech company Moderna — selling about 3.66 million shares. It still owned about 42.22 million shares in the Massachusetts-based company, at the end of the third quarter.

Moderna shares closed 0.37% lower at $333.61 on Tuesday. Shares of the company have risen 198.6% so far this year.

Baillie Gifford snapped up 91 million shares in Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings Inc DNA, which began trading on the New York Stock Exchange last month.

The firm bought about 1.6 million shares in Spotify Technology SA SPOT as well, lifting its stake up to 22.3 million shares — about 12.5% of total outstanding shares. It also added nearly 8 million shares in Peloton Interactive Inc. PTON in the quarter.