Vanguard loads up on more Tesla stock, now owns 6.2 percent of automaker

By Joey Klender

Posted on February 10, 2022

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) revealed in a 13-G filing with the SEC that Vanguard Group, a passive fund manager based out of Malvern, Pennsylvania, has purchased additional shares of the electric automaker’s stock. The filing shows that Vanguard increased its holdings to 62,448,572 aggregate shares owned, making its total ownership stake in Tesla 6.22 percent.

Vanguard has put its money where its mouth is for Tesla stock. The fund manager has upped its holdings since last year. Interestingly, Vanguard purchased shares on February 10, 2021, as well. From the end of Q3 2020 to February 10, 2021, Vanguard upped its holdings by 33.58 percent, according to a StreetInsider article from that time.

The filing explicitly shows Vanguard’s total holdings have ballooned to over 62.4 million shares, making its 6.22 percent ownership stake the largest amongst owners of shares, according to CNN. Vanguard’s now-6.22 percent ownership stake is above Capital Research and Management Co.’s 3.73 percent holding.

The firm told us:

As a policy, Vanguard does not comment directly on specific companies or equity sectors. At Vanguard, our internally managed equity funds follow a quantitative or indexed mandate. You’ll see that the vast majority of funds holding TSLA shares are index strategies, which follow a market cap-weighted approach.

At Tesla’s opening price of $932 per share, Vanguard’s holdings would have been worth $58,202,069,104 at market open on Thursday.

Of the top ten owners of Tesla, only one fund manager has trimmed their total position, which is Baillie Gifford & Co., an Edinburgh-based investment house. The firm trimmed its ownership stake during Tesla stock’s incredible stock price climb during 2020 and 2021. The firm’s client guidelines required Baillie Gifford to trim its stake from 13.2 percent to around 8 percent. Traditionally, many funds, including fellow Tesla bull ARK Invest, do not allow a single holding to take up more than 10 percent of any of its funds.

Tesla has received numerous praise for its above-consensus Earnings Call for Q4 2021. The automaker beat out Wall Street estimates for vehicle deliveries and numerous financial metrics.

If there’s one thing Tesla investors have come to expect, it’s that the company continues to improve with every quarter. After performing so well at the end of 2021, Tesla’s momentum continues to build into 2022, a year where the automaker will focus purely on ramping up two new facilities and introducing its new 4680 battery technology and structural battery pack. Deliveries of Tesla’s mass-market Model 3 and Model Y vehicles are trending upward, according to some narratives. Analyst Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research said Tesla’s shipping momentum during Q1 is peaking above Q4 when Tesla beat analyst expectations by 13 percent.

Disclosure: Joey Klender is a TSLA Shareholder.

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Vanguard loads up on more Tesla stock, now owns 6.2 percent of automaker