Virgin Galaxy, known as "the first share of space travel"Shares tumbled 11.5% on Wednesday after Cathy wood's space exploration ETF (ARKX) sold almost all of its remaining shares.
Virgin Galactic released disappointing first-quarter results after Monday's trading, and its next test flight is a long way off. At one point on Tuesday, the stock tumbled 20% to below $15, before slowly recovering to close barely higher. Wood's fund sold 293962 Virgin Galactic shares on Tuesday.
Virgin Galactic's shares have fallen by about half since Wood's Space Exploration ETF began trading at the end of March, when ARKX first bought about 662000 shares worth about $20 million. But Virgin Galactic's shares then began to fall because of delays in its test plans and commercial flights, as well as the reduction of its holdings by chairman Chamas Pali Hapitia (Chamath Palihapitiya) and founder Richard Branson.
By April 20th, ARKX had sold nearly half of its stake in Virgin Galaxy. After the company released its first-quarter results, ARKX further reduced its stake in the company to just 7622 shares, the smallest position in the ETF, with a weighting of 0.02 per cent.
Cathy Wood's other fund, proprietary Technology and Robot ETF (ARKQ), has also been reducing its stake in Virgin Galaxy in recent weeks, from more than 2 million shares at the end of April to just 7879 shares today.