In this piece, we will take a look at Cathie Wood’s latest stock picks and the 12 biggest positions in Ark Invest’s latest investment portfolio. If you want to skip our overview of the well known hedge fund boss, her firm, and the latest news, then you can skip ahead to Cathie Wood’s Latest Stock Picks: 5 Biggest Positions.
The past two years have been some of the toughest in the stock market’s recent history. Most investors typically love it when the the economy is growing and capital is easily available since it provides them the opportunity to make comfortable bets rapidly. However, these bets, which often involve high risk growth stocks or firms in the technology industry, can rapidly sour if the broader sentiment about consumer and business economic health becomes uncertain.
If you ask us, no one would understand this better than Cathie Wood. In a hedge fund industry that has its fair share of big ticket names, Ms. Wood’s hedge fund still manages to stand out from the pack. While most hedge funds often prefer to invest in broader sectors that each perform well in different economic environments, Ark Invest is focused on stocks that it believes have the highest disruptive potential.
In 2022, when major indexes rapidly tanked in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the lax monetary policies of the coronavirus pandemic, Ark Invest didn’t do so well. How do we know? Well, Insider Monkey looked at Cathie Wood’s top stock picks for the third quarter of 2022 as part of our coverage of Cathie Wood Is Loading Up On These 12 Stocks. As part of our research for the piece, we discovered that when the Federal Reserve was hiking interest rates in chunks of 75 basis points and Americans were facing double digit inflation, Ark Investment lost nearly all of its money. Data from December 2022 shows that by December 16, 2022, the fund had dropped by an unbelievable 67%. This made Ark one of the worst performing funds at the time, and the hits were evident in the portfolio value.
According to Insider Monkey’s research, Ark Investment’s portfolio value was $11.5 billion as December 2022 came to a close. While a sizeable amount on its own accord, this marked another eye opening 65% drop over the year ago figure of $33 billion. From the $11.5 billion in December 2022, as of 2023’s close, Ark’s investment portfolio had slightly grown to sit at $16.8 billion. As for its performance, Ark roared back to life in 2023 as its flagship exchange traded fund (ETF), the Ark Innovation ETF, gained 70% last year. This was unsurprising, as 2023 was quite a tumultuous year that saw many analysts and economists unable to stop scratching their heads. Not only did the U.S. economy not slip into a recession, but the economy kept on growing despite high interest rates. Apart from rates coming down, this was the best that anyone could hope for, and Ark Innovation was also helped by its technology heavy bets which benefited from the A.I. hype.
January 2024 so far is shaping out to be a positive month for one of Cathie Wood’s favorite securities, Bitcoin. The world’s most popular cryptocurrency soared along with the markets last year, after its bloodbath in 2022. Building on this, the SEC finally approved several Bitcoin ETFs in January, and Ark launched its own ETF. The ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) is a $279 million ETF.
As to Cathie Wood’s sentiments about Bitcoin, here’s what she had to say to Yahoo Finance after the SEC’s Bitcoin ETF approval:
Typically in a situation like this where there are a lot of competitors, the market consolidates. So we would expect that to happen. We hope and trust that we will be one of the winners. And I think from our pint of view we have some competitive advantages. A lot of people are talking about fees, and I’ll get to that. But there are three competitive advantages that i think are very important. One, our infrastructure and operations. Our partner 21shares has built this infrastructure, and then operating 40 different funds through booms and busts, through halvings and forks, and airdrops and you know through periods that the ETF industry just has never seen. So our infrastructure is battle tested. The second is research. As you know we give all of our research away. Our first blog on Bitcoin was the year of our founding, 2014. Our first whitepaper, Bitcoin Couldn’t Serve The Three Roles of Money, we did in collaboration with Art Laffer. In 2015. We gained our first exposure in Bitcoin at $250 and have never left it.
We think this story has just begun. So we’ve been putting prolific research out there, and now we have the Bitcoin monthly report, and a Bitcoin brainstorm monthly. So we continued to give our researc h away, as does our partner at 21shares. And then the third, and this is not to be underestimated. The third competitive advantage that we have is a sales force that started selling our exposure to Bitcoin in 2016. That’s when we partnered with Resolute Investment Management.
With these details in mind, let’s take a look at some of Cathie Wood’s latest stock picks. Some notable names in this list are Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), UiPath Inc. (NYSE:PATH), and Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN).
Cathie Wood of ARK Investment Management
Our Methodology
To compile our list of Cathie Wood’s latest stock picks, we scanned through Ark Investment’s SEC filings for Q4 2023 and picked the firm’s top 12 stock picks.
For these stocks we have also mentioned hedge fund sentiment. Hedge funds’ top 10 consensus stock picks outperformed the S&P 500 Index by more than 140 percentage points over the last 10 years (see the details here). That’s why we pay very close attention to this often-ignored indicator.
Cathie Wood’s Latest Stock Picks: 11 Biggest Positions
11. Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors In Q3 2023: 69
Ark Investment’s Q4 2023 Investment Value: $468 million
Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) is a Canadian eCommerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest trimmed its stake in the company by 17% during Q4 2023. As the quarter started, Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP)’s shares were up by 57% during the year as markets remained buoyed by strong investor interest in artificial intelligence.
As of Q3 2023 end, 69 out of the 910 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey’s database had bought and owned a stake in Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP). ARK Investment Management was the firm’s biggest hedge fund investor in our database as it owned 6.9 million shares that were worth $379 million.
Along with UiPath Inc. (NYSE:PATH), Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), and Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN), Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) is one of Cathie Wood’s latest stock picks.
10. Unity Software Inc. (NYSE:U)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors In Q3 2023: 27
Ark Investment’s Q4 2023 Investment Value: $498 million
Unity Software Inc. (NYSE:U) is a technology company that provides developers with the tools to develop applications such as video games. Its shares have lagged broader markets when it comes to performance over the past 12 months, which is unsurprising especially as the firm has missed analyst EPS estimates in all four of its latest quarters.
During last year’s third quarter, 27 out of the 910 hedge funds covered by Insider Monkey’s research had invested in the firm. Unity Software Inc. (NYSE:U)’s largest stakeholder among these is Jim Davidson, Dave Roux, and Glenn Hutchins’s Silver Lake Partners as it owned $1 billion worth of shares.
9. CRISPR Therapeutics AG (NASDAQ:CRSP)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors In Q3 2023: 24
Ark Investment’s Q4 2023 Investment Value: $534 million
CRISPR Therapeutics AG (NASDAQ:CRSP) is one of the hottest companies in the medical scene right now. It allows firms to develop genetic editing technologies, and as 2023 came to a close, its sickle cell treatment was approved by the FDA. Perhaps this was also why Cathie Wood increased her stake in CRISPR Therapeutics AG (NASDAQ:CRSP) by 20% during Q4 2023.
Insider Monkey dug through 910 hedge fund holdings for 2023’s September quarter to find 24 CRISPR Therapeutics AG (NASDAQ:CRSP) shareholders. ARK Investment Management was the biggest investor due to its $325 million stake.
8. Twilio Inc. (NYSE:TWLO)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors In Q3 2023: 43
Ark Investment’s Q4 2023 Investment Value: $540 million
Twilio Inc. (NYSE:TWLO) is a software company that allows businesses to use cloud computing for their customer relationship management needs. The firm has beaten analyst EPS estimates in all four of its latest quarters, and the shares are rated Buy on average.
During last year’s third quarter, 43 out of the 910 hedge funds profiled by Insider Monkey had invested in the firm. Twilio Inc. (NYSE:TWLO)’s largest shareholder in our database was David Blood and Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management due to its $505 million investment.
7. Roblox Corporation (NYSE:RBLX)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors In Q3 2023: 34
Ark Investment’s Q4 2023 Investment Value: $544 million
Roblox Corporation (NYSE:RBLX) is a well known software company known for providing an immersive virtual 3D experience called the metaverse. According to data from Sensor Tower, Q3 2023 was a great quarter for the firm as its daily average users (DAUs) grew by 29% annually.
During the same time period, out of the 910 hedge funds covered by Insider Monkey’s study, 34 had held a stake in Roblox Corporation (NYSE:RBLX). ARK Investment Management was the biggest investor as it owned 11.9 million shares that were worth $346 million.
6. Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZM)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors In Q3 2023: 30
Ark Investment’s Q4 2023 Investment Value: $788 million
Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZM) is a technology firm that enables users to stay in touch and collaborate digitally through their homes or offices. The firm’s investors were in for some bad news in January 2024 as BNP Paribas downgraded the stock to Underperform from Neutral and set a $60 share price target for a $7 downside from the current share price.
30 out of the 910 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey’s Q3 2023 database were the firm’s shareholders. Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZM)’s largest investor fund shareholder was ARK Investment Management since it owned a $712 million stake.
Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZM), Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), UiPath Inc. (NYSE:PATH), and Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) are some of Cathie Wood’s latest and biggest stock positions.
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Disclosure: None. Cathie Wood’s Latest Stock Picks: 11 Biggest Positions is originally published on Insider Monkey.