Cathie Wood Buys Tesla Stock Amid Plunge After Deliveries Miss

Abhishek Vishnoi, Bloomberg News

Cathie Wood Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Cathie Wood bought Tesla Inc. stock on the day of its biggest plunge since September 2020, reaffirming her conviction in the electric-vehicle maker that many other investors have soured on.

Funds backed by Wood’s firm Ark Investment Management LLC bought more than 176,000 shares of the automaker in the first US trading session of this year, according to Ark’s daily data. The purchases came as Tesla stock plunged 12% after the company missed estimates for quarterly deliveries despite offering hefty incentives.

Wood’s exchange-traded funds have acquired slightly more than 938,000 shares of the EV maker since Oct. 3, when they started their latest buying streak, according to Ark trading data compiled by Bloomberg. The October-December period marked the first quarter in seven in which Ark net-bought Tesla stock.

Tesla shares rose as much as 4.3% to $112.74 as of 9:45 a.m. New York time Wednesday after closing Tuesday at their lowest since August 2020.

Tuesday’s fall followed Tesla’s 65% tumble last year amid concerns including rising interest rates and inflation weighing on EV demand, growing competition, supply-chain issues and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter Inc. More than $25 billion worth of Tesla shares changed hands Tuesday, the highest among all members in the S&P 500 Index and almost as much as the combined amount notched for Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc.

Tesla’s third-straight quarterly deliveries miss prompted several analysts to cut their price targets for the stock, dropping Wall Street’s average 12-month forecast to the lowest since October 2021. Still, the consensus target price implies that shares should more than double over the next year.

Historic measures by the US Federal Reserve and global recession fears have battered growth stocks that make up the majority of Ark’s holdings. Wood’s flagship ARK Innovation ETF fell 2.5% on Tuesday, adding to last year’s 67% decline.

(Updates with trading in the fourth paragraph.)