Tesla Is Worth $1 Trillion Again. ARK’s Cathie Wood Bought More Stock.

Tesla is the largest position in Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF. ARK has been a longtime believer in Elon Musk’s EV maker. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP / Getty Images)

Tesla stock rose Wednesday after Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest disclosed more purchases just ahead of the electric-vehicle company’s second-quarter earnings report.

Shares of the EV maker added 3.5%, closing at $321.67, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively.

The closing price gives Tesla a market value of just over $1 trillion, based on 3.22 billion shares outstanding. Tesla’s value has been bobbing around the $1 trillion mark since early June.

Wood’s funds bought 115,400 shares on Tuesday in two funds, the ARK Innovation exchange-traded fund and the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF , according to ARK’s daily trade notifications.

It was the third buy for ARK in July. ARK sold some Tesla stock in May, ahead of Tesla’s June launch of a robo-taxi service in Austin, Texas.

The sales occurred with Tesla stock trading at around $350. The purchase prices were closer to $310 a share.

Wood isn’t likely trading aggressively or changing her mind about the EV maker. Her price target for Tesla stock is $2,600 by 2029.

Instead, trades are likely related to portfolio weighting. Tesla is the largest position in the ARK Innovation ETF, accounting for almost 10% of the fund’s assets. When positions get that large, it can necessitate some trimming to avoid unwanted concentration in a single stock.

ARK didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The recent sales came before the robo-taxi launch. The buys come just before Tesla reports second-quarter earnings on July 23.

Wall Street is looking for earnings per share of 39 cents, according to FactSet, down from 52 cents reported in the second quarter of 2024. Earnings are expected to fall with vehicle deliveries. Tesla delivered about 384,000 cars in the second quarter, down 13.5% year over year.

Baird analyst Ben Kallo is cautious on the quarter. “We see risk to estimates stemming from both (1) full-year volume outlook and (2) potential margin compression in the Energy segment,” wrote Kallo on Tuesday.

Tesla originally hoped to increase volumes in 2025 from the 1.8 million cars sold in 2024. That was partly based on a new lower-priced model, which hasn’t arrived yet. Kallo sees a chance that Tesla lowers its growth expectations. He also sees the possibility that tariffs squeeze profit margins in the energy segment.

He currently projects second-quarter earnings per share of 41 cents, two cents higher than the consensus. Kallo rates Tesla stock at Hold and has a $320 price target.

Coming into Wednesday trading, Tesla stock was down 23% year to date, but up 21% over the past 12 months.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com