Cathie Wood Adds New Space Stock To 2 ETFs: Company Went To Moon, Will Investment Returns Follow?

Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood has been a proponent of space industry growth and she may have found her new favorite stock.

What Happened: Two Ark Invest ETFs added small positions in Intuitive Machines LUNR to their portfolios on Wednesday, as the space stock soared over the past year and could gain more support with recent NASA contract wins.

The stock was added to the Ark Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF ARKQ with 267,642 shares purchased. This represents 0.52% of the ETF and the 35^th largest position at the time of writing.

To make way for the addition, Ark sold shares of Rocket Lab USA Inc. RKLB, another high-performing 2024 space stock. Rocket Lab is currently the fourth-largest position in the ETF at 5.59% of assets, trailing only Tesla Inc TSLA, 15.44%; Kratos Defense & Security Solutions KTOS, 10.07% and Teradyne Inc TER, 9.03%.

The stock was also added to the Ark Space Exploration & Innovation ETF ARKX with 160,178 shares purchased. This represents 1.04% of the ETF and the 27^th largest position at the time of writing.

To make way for this addition, Ark sold shares of Kratos and Rocket Lab. Kratos is the largest holding in the ETF at 10.20% followed by Rocket Lab at 8.99%.

Both of the purchases, which were reported in overnight trading activity emails, are the total amount of shares owned as of Thursday. This means these were the first purchases by both ETFs. Investors will be closely following to see if Wood adds to the Intuitive Machines positions.

Read Also: EXCLUSIVE: Cathie Wood Tells Benzinga Why Tesla Should Trade As A Tech Stock

Why It's Important: Intuitive Machines stock is up over 600% in the past year. The company had one of the biggest headlines in February 2024 as Intuitive Machines had the first private spacecraft land on the moon and the first U.S. soft landing on the surface since 1972.

Optimism for space stocks like Intuitive Machines carries into 2025 with the company announcing several NASA contract awards in December.

Intuitive Machines is also preparing to head back to the moon with a launch targeted for late February.

A recent Benzinga reader poll asked which space stock they would most likely invest in for 2025. Rocket Lab won the poll with 33%. Intuitive Machines ranked second among the four stocks at 24%, while 26% said they wouldn't invest in space stocks in 2025.

The other item to watch is how high up the top holdings list Intuitive Machines is for the Ark Space Exploration ETF.

The Procure Space ETF UFO has been holding the stock for some time and Intuitive Machines is currently the top holding at 7.81%.

LUNR Price Action: Intuitive Machines trades at $19.06 at market close Thursday versus a 52-week trading range of $2.48 to $22.32.

Photo: Courtesy of Intuitive Machines