Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest has bought $18.3 million of SpaceX shares after the stock fell 5.43% to a new post-IPO low, according to the firm’s July 17 trading report.
Summary
- ARK Invest bought $18.3 million of SpaceX shares after the stock hit a post-IPO low.
- Four ARK ETFs acquired 147,623 shares as SpaceX closed 8.2% below its IPO price.
- SpaceX delayed Starship Flight 13 after two Raptor engines failed during pre-flight testing.
According to ARK’s daily disclosure, four of its actively managed exchange-traded funds purchased a combined 147,623 SpaceX shares as the stock closed Friday at $123.99. During the session, shares dropped as low as $122.12.
The ARK Innovation ETF made the largest purchase, adding 95,129 shares worth about $11.8 million based on Friday’s closing price. ARK’s Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF bought 30,464 shares valued at $3.78 million, while its Space Exploration & Innovation ETF added 12,611 shares worth around $1.56 million.
Completing the purchase, the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF acquired another 9,419 SpaceX shares valued at approximately $1.17 million, according to the same disclosure.
ARK adds to its SpaceX position below the IPO price
Friday’s purchase has extended a series of SpaceX investments made by Wood’s firm since the company entered the public market in June.
As crypto.news previously reported, ARK bought roughly $52.1 million of SpaceX shares during the week ending July 10 through the ARKK, ARKQ, ARKW and ARKX funds. Data from Ark Invest Tracker showed that those purchases lifted the firm’s investment since the June IPO above $475 million.
Ark Invest Tracker also reported that ARK acquired about $444 million of SpaceX stock around the company’s June 12 market debut. Its latest purchase came with the shares trading 8.2% below their $135 offer price, based on Friday’s closing value.
While adding to SpaceX, ARK reduced its exposure to Robinhood Markets during the same trading session. The firm’s report showed that ARKW sold 20,089 Robinhood shares and ARKK disposed of another 5,913 shares.
Robinhood ended Friday at $99.96 after losing 5.72% during the session. ARK’s disclosure did not provide a reason for selling the 26,002 shares.
Starship delay adds pressure to SpaceX shares
As crypto.news reported, SpaceX’s latest decline followed the cancellation of Starship Flight 13 shortly before its scheduled launch. According to the report, at least two Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster failed to ignite during pre-flight testing, prompting the company to stop the mission minutes before liftoff.
Elon Musk later stated that SpaceX would replace the affected engines. The company subsequently rescheduled Flight 13 for July 20 at 6:45 p.m. ET.
Commenting on the stock’s decline, cognitive scientist Gary Marcus linked the latest weakness to rising doubts about Musk’s performance. Marcus expected another record low to be more likely than a sudden and much larger collapse, according to his assessment cited in the report.
Tesla investor Sawyer Merritt offered a different view, arguing that traders had overreacted to a short operational delay. Merritt maintained that postponing the launch by several days did not represent a serious setback for SpaceX.
