Ark Invest, the asset management group led by Cathie Wood, drained over US$13mln worth of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares from its ETFs ahead of the electric car manufacturers' second-quarter results on Wednesday.
Over 38,000 shares were dumped from the group’s lead fund the ARK Innovation ETF, while around 6,8000 shares we dropped from the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF.
Shares in Tesla have risen over 137% since the start of 2023, recovering from around a 65% fall during the last months of 2022.
The electric car company is currently trading at its highest point all year at around US$290.
Mark Zuckerberg's Meta replaced some of the outgoing Tesla shares, with Cathie Wood adding around US$1.2bn worth of shares to the ETFs.
Tesla creator Musk has been consistently pitted against the Facebook founder especially after Zuckerberg launched Threads, a direct rival to Twitter, earlier this month.
The rivalry between the two even sparked rumours of a cage fight to settle the tech bosses’ differences.
However, Cathie Wood’s decision to cut Tesla shares from the Ark ETFs probably had less to do with potential knockouts and more an indication of troubles for the car manufacturer.
Analysts believe all attention will be on the group’s margins in the second-quarter results after prices for its electric vehicles were repeatedly slashed in 2023.
“Commentary from Musk on any more price cuts and the margin trajectory for the second half will be front and centre for Tesla bulls/bears to debate this hot-button issue,” said private bank Wedbush.