What Has Cathie Wood Been Trading?

The story of Ark Invest, Wall Street veteran Cathie Wood’s lineup of actively managed, innovation-centric ETFs is well-known at this point. Ark has been defined by big bets, big wins, big losses, and big volatility! For Wood, a true believer in tech and innovation if there ever was one, it is all in a day’s work. 

She has tremendous conviction, doesn’t hedge, and absolutely does not shy away from risk! As a result, when things are good, they are great. And when the market goes south, Ark investors know that it's time to buckle up for the ride down. Despite the extreme volatility of her funds, it is only fair to look at long-term performance and the jury is still out as her flagship fund only launched in 2018. 

The ARK Innovation ETF ARKK and its moves are closely watched on Wall Street. The fund topped out at just under $160 in 2021 after a ridiculous run-up from $40 amid the 2020 Covid sell-off. Today, ARKK is back at roughly $40. But Wood’s high-level conviction, deep research, trading moxie, track record and pedigree have gained her investment firm a massive following despite a terrible 2022. 

ARKK currently has assets under management (AUM) of around $8 billion, which gives the firm huge firepower and influence in the innovation and tech space. Cathie moves the market. And for this reason, Benzinga decided to take a quick look at what she has been trading in recent days. The view from 30,000 feet is pretty straightforward. 

ARKK has been a buyer of Coinbase Global COIN, Roku ROKU and Block SQ and a seller of Exact Sciences EXAS and Twilio TWLO going back to early March. Multiple ARKK transactions have shown up on multiple days in each of these stocks – all buy orders or sell orders as indicated above. 

Let’s take a look at the technical outlook for each of these names. Coinbase endured a truly brutal sell-off in 2022 due to the collapse of crypto valuations and the stock currently trades at $62.50 vs. an all-time high of just under $350. Wood’s activity in COIN may be related to her bullish outlook on Bitcoin, which may have put in a bottom and begun a new sustainable uptrend, which has propelled COIN shares up more than 86% year-to-date. 

Roku is one of ARKK’s biggest holdings and that stock has seen better days. Shares closed on April 17 at $64.47 after trading above $470 in July 2021. Nevertheless, near-term technicals are looking up, as the stock has jumped 63% in 2023. Like the first two names that have made Cathie’s buy list, Block (SQ) has followed the same trajectory – a brutal late 2021 and 2022 but signs of life in 2023. 

Block shares are well-off their old highs above $260 in 2021, but have seen a better than 6% jump year-to-date and closed on April 17 at $64.19. 

Exact Sciences (EXAS) also participated in the growth stock rout of 2022, falling from highs around $160 to $66 as of close on April 17. Nevertheless, the EXAS chart remains quite near-term bullish with shares currently sitting near year-to-date highs after a climb of almost 37% since January 1st. 

Twilio Inc. is currently worth around 15% of its market value in early 2021. At one time this company was one of tech’s darling high-fliers, but today the shares trade hands for $64 compared to all-time highs above $400. 

2022 revenue at Twilio was $3.84 billion which is roughly 33% of the stock’s current $12 billion market cap, so on a valuation basis, this is still a richly valued name. Nevertheless, sales trends at Twilio continue to be bullish – but so do the losses in the earnings column, which have been accelerating. As investors have shied away from high-growth/no-earnings stories, TWLO has paid the price. All the same, shares have begun to rebound a bit, notching gains of 27% so far this year.

Featured photo by lo lo on Unsplash