Cathie Wood Continues Buying Spree In This Self-Driving Trucking Startup As Shares Drop 70% YTD

Cathie Wood's Ark Investment Management bought more shares in self-driving trucking company TuSimple Holdings Inc TSP on Tuesday, which has lost nearly 70% in market value so far this year.

The stock-picking firm bought 21,619 shares in TuSimple, estimated to be worth $232,620 based on their last close of $10.7 a share. 

TuSimple has slumped about 38% in the past week. It is currently trading much below its April IPO price of $40. 

Ark Invest owns shares in TuSimple via two of its six exchange-traded funds — the Ark Innovation ETF ARKK and the Ark Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF ARKQ.

The St. Petersburg, Florida-based money managing firm held 11.4 million shares — worth $122.5 million— in TuSimple, before Tuesday’s trade.

See Also: Cathie Wood Loads Up $2.8M In This Self-Driving Trucking Company As Shares Plunge 38% In A Week

The latest purchase represents a marginal boost to Ark Invest's stake but adds up to more than a 2% jump in the past week when the money managing firm loaded up more shares.

TuSimple’s unexpected management shuffle last week saw co-founder and CTO Xiaodi Hou taking over the CEO and chairman roles from Cheng Lu. 

Although the company said it was part of a "planned executive succession," the move spooked investors, sending its shares down 21% on Thursday and 13% lower a day later.

Wood had said she had “confidence in Xiaodi’s ability to execute on TuSimple’s autonomous strategy.”

TuSimple is developing commercial-ready, Level 4, fully autonomous trucks for customers. Ark Invest has also placed bets in electric vehicle companies Tesla Inc TSLA and Xpeng Inc XPEV.

Here are a few other key Ark Invest trades from Tuesday:

• Bought 2,307 shares — estimated to be worth $16,702 shares— in Velo3D Inc VLD. The stock closed 5.3% higher at $7.2 a share on Tuesday.

Photo Courtesy: TuSimple Holdings