Cathie Wood sells more than $100 million of Tesla stock despite saying it will rise over 300%
- Cathie Wood's Ark Invest sold more than $100 million of Tesla stock on Wednesday, its filings show.
- Wood has previously said she likes to trade around stocks' volatility and take profit after shares have risen.
- Yet Tesla has also been struggling with global supply chain problems, according to its CEO Elon Musk.
Cathie Wood's Ark Invest has sold more than $100 million of Tesla stock despite giving the electric car company a $3,000 price target - 300% higher than Thursday's $755 closing price.
On Wednesday, Ark sold a combined 142,708 Tesla shares, worth around $109 million, its daily trade report showed.
Ark did not give a reason for the share sales, but Wood has previously said that she likes to trade around the volatility in Tesla stock.
She told CNBC in 2020 that she likes to take some profit every now and then and buy the dips when stocks fall. Tesla rose sharply on Tuesday, jumping 2.6% from $733.57 to a closing price of $752.92, reportedly on the back of rising car sales in China. The shares were little changed in Friday's pre-market session, at around $758.19.
Wood is bullish on Tesla, telling Yahoo Finance last week that she thinks its shares are worth around $3,000.
"Our estimate for Tesla's success has gone up. The main reason for that is their market share. Instead of going down from year-end 2017 to today, it has actually gone up fairly dramatically," Wood told Yahoo.
However, Tesla has been caught up in the global supply chain problems that are hitting companies in the US and Europe as economies rapidly reopen. Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted last week that "super crazy supply chain shortages" were delaying its new Roadster model until 2023.
Tesla remained the Ark Innovation ETF's biggest holding on Thursday, making up 10.6% of the fund. It holds 3.07 million Tesla shares worth $2.32 billion, Ark's data showed. Ark Invest did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Tesla sale.
Wood, the founder and CEO of Ark Invest, shot to prominence in 2020 when her Ark Innovation exchange-traded fund rose 145%, according to Bloomberg data. It was boosted by big bets on tech firms such as Tesla, which soared 730% in 2020.
Tesla is up just 4.9% this year, thanks in part to a rotation away from flashy technology stocks towards companies that stand to do better during the economic rebound.