Cathie Wood’s money managing firm Ark Invest on Thursday for the first time bought shares in the U.S. listed Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng Inc XPEV on the dip and sold more shares in Tesla Inc TSLA.
Ark Invest picked up 277,263 shares — estimated to be worth $13.39 million — in the Guangzhou, China-based Xpeng.
Shares of the company closed 5.57% lower at $48.29 a share on Thursday. The stock has risen 9.50% so far this year.
The development comes a day after the China-based electric vehicle maker reported November deliveries that came ahead of local rivals Nio Inc NIO and Li Auto Inc LI.
The three players delivered more than 10,000 electric vehicles each -- with Xpeng leading the pack at 15,613 units, Li Auto grabbing the second spot at 13,485 units and Nio dispatching 10,878 units to dealers during the month.
Xpeng’s president and chairman Brian Gu had last month said the company aims to sell half of its electric vehicles outside China.
The maker of electric sedans and SUVs already sells electric vehicles in Norway and plans to ramp up investment overseas next year including foraying into Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands in 2022.
Ark Invest bought the shares in Xpeng via the Ark Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF ARKQ on Thursday.
This latest exposure in Xpeng will be the second such buy for Ark Invest in a pure play electric vehicle company, as it also owns shares in Elon Musk-led Tesla.
To be sure, Ark Invest also owns OTC shares of Chinese automaker BYD Co BYDDY, which is backed by Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) Chairman Warren Buffett.
Wood’s popular money managing firm Ark Invest counts Tesla as its largest holding and owns shares worth billions in the company via its exchange traded funds.
The investment firm has been booking profit in the stock since early September when shares of the company began an upward march. On Thursday, it sold another 80,720 shares in Tesla — estimated to be worth $87.54 million.
A Tesla super-bull, Wood has been favouring the Musk led company and set a $3,000 price target for the electric vehicle stock by 2025. The popular money manager has however said she would not buy the recently listed Rivian Automotive Inc RIVN at the current levels.
Ark Invest still held 2.34 million shares — worth about $2.52 billion — in Tesla ahead of Thursday’s trade.
Tesla shares closed 0.95% lower at $1,084.6 a share on Thursday and have risen 48.6% year-to-date.
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