Cathie Wood Sells $21M In PayPal Amid Stock Crash — Loads Up Heavily In This Fintech Rival

Cathie Wood-led Ark Investment Management on Wednesday rushed to cut most of its exposure in Paypal Holdings Inc PYPL after the fintech company abandoned an ambitious growth plan that it put in place last year and snapped up shares in fintech rival Block Inc SQ instead.

The popular money managing firm sold 158,126 shares — estimated to be worth $20.9 million — in Paypal.

Shares of the company recorded its worst sell off on Wednesday to close 24.6% lower at $132.57 a share.

The St. Petersburg, Florida-based money managing firm sold shares in Paypal via the Ark Fintech Innovation ETF ARKF. No other Ark Invest ETF owns shares in Paypal.

The popular asset management firm held 161,778 shares — worth $28.44 million—  in Paypal, prior to Wednesday’s trade.

See Also: Why PayPal Shares Are Plunging Today

The latest share sale indicates Ark Invest now owns just about 3,000 shares in Paypal.

PayPal said it no longer expects to achieve 750 million active accounts by 2025, abandoning a goal that contributed to a jump in spending last year on sales campaigns.

Paypal reported quarterly earnings of $1.11 per share, which came in below the $1.12 estimate. The company said it expects 2022 revenue growth between 15% and 17%, below its guidance 18% that it provided earlier.

PayPal expects adjusted full-year 2022 earnings to be in the range of $4.60 to $4.75 per share. 

Ark Invest also bought 549,034 shares — estimated to be worth $62.6 million — in Jack Dorsey's Block, which is working on decentralizing Bitcoin BTC/USD mining, on the dip.

ARKF, the Ark Innovation ETF ARKK and the Ark Next Generation Internet ETF ARKW own shares in Block. 

Ark Invest has in the recent past been piling up shares in Block, renamed from Square, and held 6.14 million shares — worth $784.7 million — prior to Wednesday’s trade.

Here are a few other key Ark Invest trades on Wednesday:

• Sold 722,327 shares — estimated to be worth $26.4 million in Twitter Inc TWTR. The stock shares closed 4.2% lower at $36.5 a share on Wednesday.
• Bought 19,038 shares — estimated to be worth $3.56 million — in Coinbase Global Inc COIN. Shares closed 5.24% lower at $187.37 a share.