ETF Bull and Bear Discussion Board

[JohnCM]

Tesla-heavy ETFs ride on its coattails

Published: April 17, 2020
By Andrea Riquier

Tesla is a controversial company, but it’s certainly boosting these ETFs

Referenced Symbols
CARZ
+3.47%
QCLN
+3.45%
ARKQ
+2.63%
LIT
+2.94%
ARKW
+1.59%
ARKK
+3.28%
SMOG
+3.68%
TSLA
+1.16%
COMP
+1.38%
SPX
+2.67%

Wood, the founder and chief investment officer of the ARK family of exchange-traded funds, grabbed a lot of media attention in February, when she published an investment thesis that said shares of Tesla Inc US:TSLA could zoom to $7,000 by 2024.

Tesla stock is up again on Friday, and if shares close in positive territory, it would mark the company’s longest string of gains ever. While Tesla shares are off their all-time high, they are still more than 80% higher for the year to date, while the major stock benchmarks are in the red. The tech-heavy NASDAQ US:COMP , where Tesla trades, is down just over 4% in that period, but the broader S&P 500 US:SPX has lost 12%.

But while MarketWatch referred to Wood as “Tesla’s biggest bull” in a story about her forecast, there are ETFs that have an even heftier weighting of the stock than hers do. Tesla shares account for nearly one-quarter of the First Trust NASDAQ Global Auto Index Fund, for example.

ETF NAME AND TICKER TESLA SHARES AS % OF HOLDINGS

First Trust NASDAQ Global Auto Index Fund US:CARZ 23.1%

First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge Green Energy Index Fund US:QCLN 19.5%

ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics fund US:ARKQ 14.2%

Global X Lithium Battery Tech fund US:LIT 14.%

ARK Next Generation Internet fund US:ARKW 13.3%

ARK Innovation fund US:ARKK 13%

VanEck Vectors Low Carbon Energy US:SMOG 10.8%

Source: FactSet, company fund disclosures
The table above shows the U.S.-domiciled ETFs with the biggest allocations to Tesla.

On Friday, all were higher, with CARZ up the most, at 4.2%. But for the year to date, only two of the ARK funds, ARKW and ARKK, are in the black.