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The Street
The Street
Dan Weil

Cathie Wood Watch: Ark Buys Roku in Bulk, Sells Shopify

Cathie Wood, chief executive of Ark Investment Management, bought more than 200,000 shares of Roku (ROKU) Thursday.

It was her biggest purchase of the online video streaming platform since September. All the valuations below are as of Thursday’s close.

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Ark funds snatched 215,530 shares of Roku, valued at $12.3 million. The stock has dropped 33% over the past year amid intense competition in the streaming industry, but has climbed 39% year to date.

Roku posted stronger-than-expected earnings for the first quarter. It’s the second biggest holding in Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK), behind Tesla.

Also Thursday, Wood continued to dump the stock of e-commerce host Shopify (SHOP). Ark funds unloaded 391,046 shares, valued at $18.6 million. That adds up to more than $88 million in sales over the past week. But Shopify is still the eighth biggest holding in Ark Innovation.

The company’s revenue surged 26% in the fourth quarter, as merchants continue to grow their online sales offerings. But Shopify’s net loss widened by 68%. Its stock has climbed 40% year to date and 17% over the past 12 months.

Wood Sells Exact Sciences, DraftKings

Ark funds jettisoned 92,087 shares of Exact Sciences (EXAS), valued at $5.8 million. The company is a medical diagnostics provider famous for its Cologuard at-home colon cancer test. The stock has ascended 30% thus far in 2023, buoyed by strong earnings, and 12% over the last 12 months.

Ark has sold more than 4 million shares of Exact Sciences since Jan. 1. But it’s still the sixth biggest holding in Ark Innovation ETF.

Finally, Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) shed 54,422 shares of online sports gambling platform DraftKings (DKNG), valued at $1.1 million.

DraftKings stock has skyrocketed 93% year to date and 59% in the past year amid strength in the sports-gambling market. It’s the eighth biggest holding in Ark Next Generation ETF.

Wood’s Lagging Returns

Meanwhile, Wood’s performance hasn’t exactly lit the investment world on fire over the past year, as her young technology stocks have slumped. Ark Innovation has descended 27% during that period and 77% from its February 2021 peak.

Nonetheless, the fund has bounced back 15% so far this year, as tech stocks have rebounded in general.

Mama Cathie, as Wood is known to her fans, defends her strategy by noting that she has a five-year investment horizon. But the five-year annualized return of $6.7 billion-asset Ark Innovation was negative 0.69% through April 27, compared with positive 11.08% for the S&P 500.

The fund’s performance also doesn’t come close to Wood’s goal for annualized returns of 15% over five-year periods.

Ark Innovation suffered a net investment ouflow of $245 million during the five days through April 26, and enjoyed a $391 million inflow over the last year, according to ETF research firm VettaFi.

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