Cathie Wood's good fortune is on display in 2023. The Ark Invest founder, CEO, and money manager is beating the market this year, something that she failed to do in each of the last two years. In a credit to her transparency (she posts her daily transactions at the end of every trading day), we know exactly what she's buying and selling.
What is she gravitating to these days? Wood added to existing positions in Roblox (RBLX 1.35%), Genius Sports (GENI 0.39%), and Markforged Holding (MKFG -1.16%) on Thursday. Let's take a closer look.
1. Roblox
A lot of Cathie Wood stocks are riding high this year, but Roblox isn't one of them: It's one of the few Ark stocks trading lower in 2023. Shares of the company behind its namesake interactive online gaming platform are trading close to a 52-week low, down a blistering 80% from the all-time high hit in late 2021.
Roblox is growing, but its financial performance hasn't been very impressive. Last month's quarterly report was disappointing. Bookings growth of 22% was just shy of market expectations. It has also posted a larger loss than what analysts were modeling in back-to-back reports.
Image source: Getty Images.
The good news for opportunistic Roblox investors is that the platform's popularity continues to grow. It's entertaining 65.5 million daily active users, a 25% increase over the past year. The 14 billion hours of engagement it achieved were a 24% increase, in line with the expanding user base.
This also happens to be a sequential dip in active users, but it's not as bad as it seems, given the seasonality of Roblox.
2. Genius Sports
Another stock that Wood is snapping up on a pullback is Genius Sports. The shares traded as much as 11% lower on Thursday after it announced that a seller was unloading 20 million shares in a secondary offering. The move itself isn't dilutive. These aren't new shares being offered. However, it's not a good look when a significant stakeholder is selling at a low price point.
Genius Sports is a provider of data and software solutions for the gambling, sports, and media industries. Information is everything in the sports world, and Genius Sports is the stat-keeping partner for many teams as well as leagues. Live sports remain popular for fans, gamblers, and media outlets alike.
3. Markforged
Things haven't gone well for 3D printing specialist Markforged. It's now one of the smaller stocks in Wood's Ark Invest portfolios, with a market cap of $240 million. Ark Invest now owns more than 10% of the stock's outstanding shares, something that could be a problem if Wood should decide to unload the position.
Markforged has had a rough run lately. If you think Roblox and Genius Sports being down 77% to 80% from their highs is bad, Markforged is off a brutal 92% from its all-time peak in early 2021. Growth has slowed. Its revenue guidance for this year -- calling for $101 million to $110 million this fiscal year -- implies flat to 9% top-line growth.
Markforged believes that new platforms and capabilities will help it accelerate revenue growth again in 2024, but investors aren't too sure.
