Two prominent Wall Street investors pared their holdings in Tesla Inc. before Chief Executive Elon Musk disclosed publicly that he wanted to take the electric-car maker private, according to filings.
Musk needs support from a majority of existing shareholders to pull off his surprise proposal, which he revealed on Twitter last week.
Two of the biggest holders, T. Rowe Price Group Inc. TROW, -1.77% and Fidelity Investments, reduced their stakes by more than 20% in the quarter ending June 30, according to FactSet. T. Rowe sold 3.7 million shares and Fidelity sold 3.1 million shares.
It is not known why T. Rowe and Fidelity sold the shares. The two investors still own more than 20 million shares, according to FactSet, and that makes them two of Tesla’s TSLA, -2.57% five largest institutional holders. The money managers declined to comment.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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