There may never be another Steve Jobs, but SolarCity (NasdaqGS: SCTY) and Tesla’s (NasdaqGS: TSLA) Elon Musk may be the closest and next best thing. Musk is the chairman of SolarCity and CEO of Tesla and those are not the first companies he has touched that turned to gold. He co-founded PayPal, which was sold to eBay (NasdaqGS: EBAY) in 2002, and software maker Zip2. That company was sold to Compaq in 1999.
These days, it is Tesla first and foremost, then SolarCity that seem to be Musk’s priorities. Investors are pleased because Tesla is up 212% year-to-date, a surge that looks excellent until it is measured against the 279% SolarCity has added.
Select ETFs are benefiting from Musk’s Midas touch and not just in terms of returns, though that is the most important part of the equation. Due to seemingly limitless adulation heaped upon Musk by investors, some ETFs are getting bigger by the week. [Tesla’s Surge Buoys Inflows To Green Energy ETF]
Tesla’s surging market value has made the First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge Green Energy Index Fund (NasdaqGM: QCLN) “the Tesla ETF.” Two weeks ago, QCLN featured a 13.4% allocation to the electric car maker. Last week, that weight was up to 15.2%. As of Tuesday’s close, the ETF had a 17% weight to Tesla, according to First Trust data.
QCLN is still a small ETF with just over $42 million in assets under management, but the fund highlights the fact that life is good as “the Tesla ETF” because QCLN has attracted almost 20% of its current AUM tally in the past 60 days, according to Index Universe data.
QCLN is not the only ETF benefiting from exposure to the aforementioned pair of Musk stocks. The Market Vectors Global Alternative Energy ETF (NYSEArca: GEX) features Tesla as its largest holding with a weight of just over 10%. GEX also has a 2.6% weight to SolarCity. The ETF has attracted $6.24 million of its $69.4 million in AUM in the past two months.