Cathie Wood's aggressive growth investing style crushed the market in 2025. Can she keep it going in 2026? The founder, CEO, and stock-picking ace of the Ark Invest family of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has had a busy few weeks as she tries to stay on top.
Wood did some shopping as the market moved largely lower on Thursday. Ark added to existing stakes in Joby Aviation (JOBY 4.79%), Kodiak AI (KDK 2.23%), and CRISPR Therapuetics (CRSP 2.12%). Let's take a closer look at Wood's latest purchases.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Joby Aviation
Thursday was a bad day for the most valuable company in the emerging electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft industry. Joby Aviation plummeted 17% after announcing $1.2 billion in stock and convertible note offerings. Joby isn't expected to be profitable for at least another five years, so why wouldn't a practically pre-revenue company with a market cap of $10 billion use its buoyant share price to seed its working capital for years to come?
Even after Thursday's slide, Joby Aviation stock is still beating the market with a 33% return over the past year. The shares have soared 157% over the last three years. The eVTOL movement is all about next-gen electric aircraft that can ascend with limited space to take off, so it's frankly poetic that Joby has risen the same way before Thursday's sell-off.
NYSE: JOBY
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You also can't blame Wood for buying into the sell-off. Investors are worried about dilution. However, the market just erased $2 billion in market cap in a single day because Joby moved to raise $1.2 billion. Even if you thought Joby was overvalued before, the math isn't mathing. At its summertime peak last year, this was a $19 billion company.
Joby has a lot to prove, but don't dismiss it just because it's still trading for almost 500 times trailing revenue. This company with less than $23 million in revenue through the past four quarters is expected to top $1 billion on the top line three years from now. Joby has signed some big deals for its elite electric air taxi service, and the money it's in the process of raising will help the build-out of its fleet in Ohio.
NASDAQ: KDK
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2. Kodiak AI
Don't let the AI in its name fool you. Yes, Kodiak uses artificial intelligence tools for its niche, helping propel a small but ideally growing fleet of driver-owned commercial trucks that can drive around on their own. However, unlike many AI stocks, Kodiak has been a laggard.
Kodiak AI hit the market as a special-purpose acquisition company deal valued at $2.5 billion back in September. Today it's worth just $1.6 billion. Kodiak has a promising platform to serve the commercial trucking and public sector markets. Unfortunately, despite logging more than 3 million collective miles on its AI-assisted self-driving platform, it currently has only 10 commercial vehicles in its fleet. Despite finding itself at the trendy intersection of self-driving-car stocks and AI, the shares continue to languish in the single digits.
NASDAQ: CRSP
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3. CRISPR Therapeutics
Gene editing is a priority for Wood. She has positions in a few emerging players, including CRISPR. It is tackling oncology, autoimmune, diabetes, and cardiovascular solutions. Investor enthusiasm in gene-editing stocks has waned broadly since peaking a few years ago. CRISPR stock has been beating the market over the past year, but it's still trading 76% lower than its all-time high five years ago. The only two major analysts to offer refreshed guidance in January lowered their price targets slightly.
CRISPR offered an encouraging outlook when it spelled out its 2026 milestones earlier this month. Its Casgevy treatment -- a one-time gene therapy currently treating sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia -- cleared $100 million in revenue last year. It's hoping to expand Casgevy's usage to younger patients in the coming months. With a pipeline of several other therapies gaining traction, CRISPR is ready to woo back investors who bid its shares much higher in early 2021.
