Cathie Wood's Ark Invest Increases Palantir Exposure By $10.08M Amid Market Volatility, Offloads Shopify Stock

On Thursday, Cathie Wood-led Ark Invest made a significant move by increasing its stake in Palantir Technologies Inc PLTR by $10.08M, despite recent turbulence in the stock’s performance. This comes on the heels of a downgrade from Morgan Stanley and a recent sale of stock options by Palantir’s CEO, Alexander Karp.

The Palantir Trade: Ark purchased the shares through ARK Innovation ETF ARKK, ARK Next Generation Internet ETF ARKW, and Ark Fintech Innovation ETF ARKF. In total, the transaction was valued at almost $10.08 billion, based on Palantir’s Monday closing price of $14.98.

Palantir shares had been trading lower after Morgan Stanley’s analyst Keith Weiss downgraded the stock but raised its price target.

This was compounded by the fact that over 58.3 million shares were traded in a single session, and Palantir’s CEO sold nearly $11 million worth of stock options in late August.

Despite these challenges, Ark Invest’s decision to buy more shares indicates a strong belief in the company’s future. Earlier in August, Ark had also purchased nearly $14 million worth of Palantir shares following the company’s Q2 earnings report, which showcased a 13% YoY increase in revenue and its third consecutive quarter of GAAP profitability.

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The Shopify Trade: In a contrasting move, Ark Invest decided to offload shares of Shopify Inc SHOP. The Wood-led investment management firm offloaded $10.65 million worth of Shopify shares through ARKK, ARKW, and ARKF. The valuation is based on Shopify’s closing price of $66.49 on Monday.

This decision comes amid Amazon’s introduction of a new “Buy with Prime” app for Shopify merchants, which led to a rally in Shopify’s stock price.

Despite this positive development, Ark Invest’s recent trading behavior has shown a pattern of selling Shopify shares, with a total of $9.2 million worth of shares sold on August 21, 2023. This suggests a strategic shift in Ark’s investment approach towards the e-commerce platform.

Other Key Trades:

• Ark Invest made a significant buy of ACCOLADE INC shares, adding 43,619 to their holdings via ARKG.
• INTELLIA THERAPEUTICS INC NTLA also saw a purchase of 6,699 shares by Ark Invest through ARKG.
• Minor sales were observed in CODEXIS INC and PHENOMEX INC, with 92 and 3,037 shares sold respectively through ARKG.

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