Cathie Wood Makes This Molecular Diagnostics Company Top Holding Of Ark Invest's Flagship Fund, Catapulting Past Zoom, Tesla

Shares of Exact Sciences, Inc. EXAS have been on a tear, having gained over 27% in two sessions this week.

ARKK’s Top Bet: Thanks to the rally, Madison, Wisconsin-based Exact Sciences has become the top holding of Cathie Wood-led Ark Invest’s flagship exchange-traded fund. Ark Innovation ETF ARKK now holds just under 10 million shares of Exact Sciences with a market value of $600.06 million. The stock currently accounts for 9.37% of the ETF.

Exact Sciences has unseated Zoom Video Communications, Inc. ZM as ARKK’s top holding, with the latter now having a weighting of 9.30%. Tesla, Inc. TSLA and Roku, Inc. ROKU are ARKK’s third and fourth-biggest holdings, respectively, with weightings of 6.78% and 6.72%.

Exact Sciences is also the top holding of another of Ark’s ETFs, namely the Ark Genomic Revolution ETF ARKG. ARKG holds about 4.34 million shares of the company, valued at $260.71 million. The stock has a 12.70% weighting in the ETF.

Ark Invest cumulatively holds about 14 million shares of Exact Sciences, valued at $860.71 million.

Exact Sciences’ top position in both Ark funds comes despite selling the shares on Tuesday amid the stock surge. These two funds sold a total of 489,543 shares, valued at $29.42 million. Ahead of Tuesday's trade, Ark had not transacted in the stock this year.

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What’s Behind Stock Rally: Exact Sciences is a cancer screening and diagnostics company, which markets the FDA-approved Cologuard test to detect colorectal cancer. Its precision oncology portfolio comprises Oncotype Dx and Oncomap ExTra, which offer genomic insights into prognosis and cancer treatment. This apart, the company also offers COVID-19 testing.

In the September quarter, the company reported revenue growth of 15% to $523.1 million, with $360.8 million or 69% from screening. Precision oncology and COVID-19 testing fetched revenues of $151.4 million and $10.9 million, respectively.

The stock received a boost in mid-December when a rival colorectal screening test from Guardant Health, Inc. GH was found to have less sensitivity relative to Cologuard in a clinical study.

The recent momentum of the stock comes on the back of a positive preannouncement by the company. The company now expects fourth-quarter revenue of $550.7 million to $552.7 million, well ahead of the $514.37 million consensus estimate.

Notwithstanding the recent momentum, the average analysts' price target, compiled by TipRanks, suggests the stock is poised to return a negative 0.3%.

On Wednesday morning, Exact Sciences shares were up 4.33% at $62.62, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Read Next: Cathie Wood Makes Whopping $12M Buy In Tesla Stock — Offloads Xpeng For 3rd Straight Day

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