Like the Energizer bunny, Cathie Wood, chief executive of Ark Investment Management, just keeps on going -- with repeat trades of big-name stocks.
On Tuesday, Ark funds bought 50,229 shares of Coinbase Global (COIN), the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, valued at $3.2 million as of that day’s close.
The company’s shares have tumbled 68% over the past 12 months amid turmoil in the cryptocurrency market. But they have rebounded 83% this year, helped by bitcoin’s recovery.
Coinbase is the fourth biggest holding in Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK).
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Ark Buys block, Sells Exact Sciences
Also, Ark Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) snatched 17,221 shares of Block (SQ), valued at $1.1 million as of Tuesday’s close.
Block stock has slid 14% since March 21, as short sellers Hindenburg Research published a blistering criticism of the payment-services company. It has lost 52% over the past year. Block is the third biggest holding in Ark Fintech Innovation.
On the selling side, Ark Innovation dumped 21,585 shares of Exact Sciences (EXAS), valued at $1.4 million as of Tuesday’s close. The company is a medical diagnostics provider famous for its Cologuard at-home colon cancer test.
Exact Sciences stock has ascended 35% thus far in 2023, buoyed by strong earnings but has descended 7% over the past year.
Ark has shed more than 3 million of the company’s shares in 2023. But Exact Sciences is still the fifth biggest holding in Ark Innovation.
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 46% during that period and 76% from its February 2021 peak.
Nonetheless, the fund has bounced back 22% 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 $7.2 billion-asset Ark Innovation was only 0.64% through March 28, compared with 10.73% 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 saw a net investment outflow of $304 million during the past five days. But it enjoyed a net inflow of $156 million over the past year, according to ETF research firm VettaFi.
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