ARK Invest Led by Cathie Wood Acquires 3.3 Million Shares of SpaceX on Its Debut

Cathie Wood's ARK Invest made a significant purchase of nearly 3.3 million shares of SpaceX stock last Friday, coinciding with the first day of trading for Elon Musk's company.

In the lead-up to SpaceX's initial public offering, Wood and ARK Invest had sold holdings worth approximately $280 million over the preceding week. Trading records disclosed by ARK show the firm sold about 948,000 shares across 13 different companies on Friday, with a total value of at least $48 million.

SpaceX officially began trading on the Nasdaq on Friday with an offering price of $135 per share, setting a record for the largest IPO in history. The stock closed at $160.95 on its first day, marking a 19.2% gain.

Details of ARK's SpaceX Holdings

ARK Innovation ETF, managed by Wood, was the primary vehicle for the group's SpaceX acquisition on Friday, purchasing a total of 1,690,839 shares. This holding represents 3.28% of the ETF's portfolio. Year-to-date, the ARK Innovation ETF has experienced a slight overall decline.

The ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF bought 736,442 shares of SpaceX, accounting for 2.65% of its total holdings. This ETF (ticker ARKQ) is up 12.8% for the year. The ARK Space Exploration & Innovation ETF (ticker ARKX) held 538,341 shares of SpaceX on the day, making up 6.89% of its portfolio. This ETF has risen 16.6% year-to-date.

Wood has maintained a long-term bullish stance on Musk and his various enterprises. ARK Invest's venture fund had already established a position in SpaceX while it was still a private company, prior to the IPO. This fund also holds an indirect interest in SpaceX through its investment in Musk's social media platform X, following the acquisition of X by Musk's AI lab xAI and the subsequent merger of X's operations with SpaceX earlier this year.

Information on ARK Invest's website indicates that prior to its public listing, SpaceX was the top holding in the ARK venture fund, representing 11.4% of its $1.035 billion in assets under management.

ARK Invest also holds a significant position in Musk's automotive company, Tesla. Regulatory filings show that Tesla is the largest holding in three of ARK's ETFs.

Collectively, the four ARK ETFs hold 3.3 million shares of Tesla, valued at approximately $1.32 billion. Wood is extremely optimistic about Tesla, with ARK Invest setting a 2029 price target of $2,600 per share, implying a potential upside of roughly 540% from Tesla's Friday closing price of $406.43.