Cathie Wood's latest moves during sell-off: Ark investor dumps surprising amount of Tesla

Published Wed, Sep 29 20218:20 AM EDTUpdated Wed, Sep 29 20219:53 AM EDT

Ark Invest's Cathie Wood is known to never let a sell-off go to waste, but the innovation investor curiously sold the dip on her favorite stock: Tesla . The closely followed innovation investor purchased shares of 15 stocks during Tuesday's sell-off. However, Wood surprisingly sold 269,552 Tesla shares — a position worth roughly $209 million — while the stock dropped 1.7%. A surge in bond yields have pressured growth pockets of the market this week. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed as high as 1.558%, and the 30-year Treasury yield topped 2% on Tuesday. This sparked a sell-off in Big Tech stocks, which led to the Nasdaq Composite's worst day since March. Tech stocks typically trade on the promise of big earnings growth further out in the future. When rates rise, those future potential cash flows become less valuable. Ark Innovation — Wood's flagship ETF — fell 4.2% on Tuesday, bringing its year-to-date losses to nearly 10%. Tesla is still the largest holding in Ark Innovation, accounting for about 10.1% of the ETF. Wood's base case for the stock is $3,000 in five years, with the best case is around $4,000. Wood often says it is OK to trim your largest winning holdings to raise cash to buy what you feel will be your next big winner, especially when the market is giving you an opportunity to do so. "I am always looking for cash, especially in the flagship fund, which is very concentrated and involves all of our technologies," Wood said earlier this month. But this move is unusual for Wood, as she typically trims her biggest positions when they are going up, not down. To be sure, Wood did make purchases of her other highest-conviction names during during Tuesday's decline. As payments giant Square ticked 6% lower, Ark Innovation purchased 164,151 shares, a position worth about $40 million. Wood also bought 95,295 shares of streaming company Roku after the stock dropped 3.3%. This purchase totaled about $29.6 million. UiPath dropped 3.9%, spurring Wood to snatch up 337,091 shares worth roughly $17.6 million. The hot-handed investor also bought the dip in Zillow and DraftKings , which lost more than 2.8% each Tuesday. ARK Innovation purchased 258,827 shares of Zillow worth roughly $22.8 million and 393,050 shares of DraftKings worth about $19.6 million. Ark Innovation bough 184,199 shares of crypto exchange Coinbase after its stock dipped 1%. This position is worth roughly $42 million, based on Tuesday's closing price. The innovation fund also bought shares of Robinhood, Zoom Video Communications , Exact Sciences , Signify Health , Ginkgo Bioworks , Crispr Therapeutics and Veracyte .

Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of ARK Investment Management LLC, speaks during the Skybridge Capital SALT New York 2021 conference in New York, September 13, 2021.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Ark Invest's Cathie Wood is known to never let a sell-off go to waste, but the innovation investor curiously sold the dip on her favorite stock: Tesla.