Cathie Wood Cuts Twitter Stake By 85% As Elon Musk Bulks Up Takeover Financing — Also Trims Tesla

Cathie Wood-led Ark Invest Management on Thursday sold a bulk of the shares it held in Twitter Inc TWTR on the day Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk secured $7.14 billion from 19 investors to fund his $44 billion purchase of the microblogging site.

St. Petersburg, Florida-based Ark Invest sold 874,926 shares, estimated to be worth $44 million, held in the social media company. The latest sale lowers Ark Invest’s exposure to Twitter by about 85%.

The popular stock-picking firm currently holds Twitter shares via two of its six actively traded exchange funds — the Ark Next Generation Internet ETF ARKW and the Ark Fintech Innovation ETF ARKF.

The two ETFs held 1.01 million shares of Twitter, worth $49.9 million, before Thursday's trade. 

Ark has significantly trimmed its stake in Twitter this year just months after placing huge bets on the microblogging site. 

The latest sale comes as the world's richest man moved forward with bulking up finance to close the mega-deal. 

Musk is also reportedly expected to temporarily serve as the CEO of Twitter for a few months after the takeover. 

The billionaire entrepreneur, who owns a more than 9% stake in Twitter, recently sold shares worth $8.5 billion in Tesla, likely to fund the mega take-private deal.

A Tesla super-bull, Ark Invest also sold shares in the electric vehicle company’s stock on Thursday.

The firm sold 26,131 shares, estimated to be about $22.8 million, in Tesla on the day shares closed 8.3% lower at $873.28. Shares of the company have plunged 27.2% year-to-date.

Ark Invest owns shares in Tesla through ARKW, the Ark Innovation ETF ARKK, and the Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF ARKQ.

The three ETFs held 1.34 million shares worth $1.27 billion in Tesla before Thursday’s trade.

Ark Invest has recently set a new price target of $4,600 on Tesla by 2026, up from a prior estimate of $3,000 by 2025.