It's hard to find a money manager out there as widely followed as ARK Invest founder, CEO, and CIO Cathie Wood these days. The growth stock investor delivered triple-digit percentage gains last year across her universe of exchange-traded funds. This year has been more challenging, but with the market down this month -- after seven consecutive months of gains -- she's snapping up some of her favorite stocks at bargain prices.
What's Wood buying these days? She added to her positions in DraftKings (DKNG 1.63%), Genius Sports (GENI -0.59%), and Coinbase Global (COIN 4.68%) on Wednesday. Let's check in on these recent purchases.
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DraftKings
Investors betting on DraftKings have had a rough week with the shares plunging 13% through the first three trading days. Even on Wednesday -- when most stocks bounced back -- the leader of fantasy sports and emerging sportsbook player ticked lower.
The market isn't happy with DraftKings making a buyout offer for European online gambling giant Entain. The deal would be worth an estimated $22 billion in stock and cash. That is actually more than the $21 billion in market cap that DraftKings itself is currently commanding. Lost in the sell-off is that Entain would catapult DraftKings globally, and the synergies of the combined company could be substantial in the booming online wagering market.
DraftKings is doing just fine on its own. Revenue soared 320% in its latest quarter with monthly active unique players on the platform skyrocketing 281% in that time. DraftKings seems to be striking new deals every couple of days with a new league, team, or sports network to expand its brand awareness. With the sports world finally coming to terms with how important the betting market is to its success it's never been easier to grow a sportsbook brand.
Genius Sports
One of ARK Invest's smallest stakes -- Genius Sports -- is also a play on the boom in online betting. However, Genius Sports isn't an actual sportsbook operator. It's a high-tech picks-and-shovels play on the growing market, providing data management and services for sportsbook operators, media companies, and leagues.
Genius Sports went public as a special purpose acquisition company back in April. It's trading 22% below its May peak.
Like DraftKings, Genius Sports is cranking out triple-digit percentage growth. Revenue rose 108% to hit $55.8 million in its latest quarter. Its betting technology, content, and services segment accounts for the lion's share of its business, soaring 122% over the past year to account for 73% of the revenue mix.
Genius Sports is one of the smallest companies in Wood's investing universe, commanding a market cap of just $3.8 billion. It's still emerging as a smart coattail play on the growing popularity of sports wagering.
Coinbase Global
Coinbase Global was another stock that hit the market in April, but ARK Invest has been taking much bigger bites out of the leading cryptocurrency exchange than with Genius Sports. It has raced to become the fourth-largest holding across all of Wood's ETFs. ARK Invest owns nearly $1.5 billion worth of Coinbase.
Like DraftKings, Coinbase has come under pressure lately. Its plan to offer a 4% yield for its own stablecoin came undone last week, and it also doesn't help that cryptocurrencies are trading well off their springtime peaks. Coinbase is currently trading for less than the $250 reference price, a bargain for Wood today as ARK Invest has paid a lot more for the shares in the past.
Unlike DraftKings and Genius Sports, Coinbase isn't posting triple-digit revenue growth. It actually came through with quadruple-digit top-line growth, as net revenue soared 1,042% in its latest quarter. Revenue growth will slow dramatically now that the market for crypto is cooling, but it should still keep posting heady growth as it takes advantage of the volatility that spurs a spike in trading volume.
