Large Tesla investor increases stake by about $32 million

The second largest shareholder of Tesla stock Baillie Gifford and Co. has increased its share in the well known maker of electric cars and energy storage batteries. CEO Elon Musk is the largest shareholder who owns about 20 percent of Tesla.

Increased investment cost about $32 million

A regulator filing posted last Friday showed that Baillie had increased its investment in Tesla from 7.64 percent at the end of the third quarter to 7.71 per cent at the end of the fourth quarter. This may not seem like much but comes out to Baillie purchasing almost 109,000 Tesla shares during the fourth quarter. Based on last Friday's price that was around $32 million.

Baillie has a large investment in Tesla

Baillie is described by Wikipedia as follows: "Baillie Gifford is an investment management firm which is wholly owned by 44 partners,[1] all of whom work within the firm. It was founded in Edinburgh in 1908 and still has its headquarters in the city. Assets under management and advice of £196.3 billion (as at 30 September 2018)."

Baillie now owns a total of 13.2 million Tesla shares according to the regulator's filing. Based on the latest share price of $304.26 this is worth more than $4 billion.

Tesla made profits the last two quarters

Although Tesla has not made a profit for a full year yet, it has made some profit in the last two consecutive quarters. In the fourth quarter it turned a profit of $139 million. There were excellent sales of the model 3 even though there was some stock left over at the end of the year as reported in a recent Digital Journal article. It also had higher import duties on components from China. It had to reduce prices on the Model S and Model X in China. Also the discounts offered by the US government are declining.

As the appended video reports Musk just acquired the Maxwell battery technology company for about $218 million dollars.

Baillie also has invested in a Chinese company

Baillie has shown increased interest in electric vehicles (EVs). In October he took a stake in Nio, a Chinese EV manufacturer that recently became publicly traded. Baillie now owns 11.4 percent of Nio after purchasing 85.3 million shares.

Previously published in Digital Journal