(Bloomberg) -- T. Rowe Price Group Inc. sold almost half of its stake in Tesla Inc. during the fourth quarter, according to a regulatory filing.

The Baltimore-based money manager held 8.98 million Tesla shares, equaling 5.2 percent of the electric automaker’s common shares outstanding at the end of December, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund group reported in a prior filing that it held a 10.2 percent stake, comprised of 17.4 million shares, as of Sept. 30.

Tesla shares rose almost 26 percent during the fourth quarter. A spokesman at T. Rowe Price declined to comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Miles Weiss in Washington at mweiss@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Vincent Bielski, Josh Friedman

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.