Cathie Wood, chief executive of Ark Investment Management, sold one of her favorite stocks Thursday, after buying it consistently for more than five months.
Ark funds dumped 139,642 shares of electric vehicle titan Tesla (TSLA), valued at $25.4 million as of Thursday’s close. Wood is one of Tesla’s biggest evangelists and has called her previous sales of the stock profit-taking.
It remains the biggest holding by far in her flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK).
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Wood forecast in January that Tesla could rise as high as $1,700 in the next five years. It recently traded at $190 and has jumped 54% year to date. But it’s still down 44% over the past 12 months.
Ark funds purchased Block (SQ) for the second day in a row, snagging 338,072 shares valued at $20.9 million as of Thursday’s close.
Block stock has plummeted 22% since Tuesday, as short sellers Hindenburg Research published a blistering criticism of the financial services company. It has lost 55% over the last year.
Block is the eighth biggest holding in Ark Innovation ETF.
Ark Trades Coinbase, Teladoc
Also Thursday, Ark funds snatched 268,928 shares of Coinbase Global (COIN), the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, valued at $17.8 million as of that day’s close.
The company’s shares have tumbled 63% over the past 12 months amid turmoil in the cryptocurrency market. But they have rebounded 92% this year, helped by Bitcoin’s recovery. Coinbase is the fourth biggest holding in Ark Innovation.
For the second day in a row Ark funds snapped up Teladoc Health (TDOC), the phone/video healthcare provider. They purchased 230,057 shares, valued at $5.6 million as of Thursday’s close.
The company gained great notoriety early in the pandemic, when people couldn’t go their doctors’ office. But the trend faded over the past year, as people returned to their doctors’ offices.
Teladoc shares dropped 62% during that period. Still, they have firmed 6% so far this year in line with other tech stocks. Teladoc is the ninth largest 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 43% during that period and 76% from its February 2021 peak.
Nonetheless, the fund has bounced back 21% 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 $7.3 billion-asset Ark Innovation was negative 0.18% through March 23, compared with positive 10.75% 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.
She may be losing her popularity. Ark Innovation suffered a net investment outflow of $174 million during the past five days. But it enjoyed a net inflow of $97 million over the last year, according to ETF research firm VettaFi.
