Switch out: Why Cathie Wood has dumped almost 5 million shares in Nintendo

Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) has been dumping Nintendo’s American depository receipts since July, and now holds a negligible stake of just 1,500 ADRs worth about $82,000, according to daily trading data from Ark Investment Management compiled by Bloomberg. 

That’s down from more than 4.7 million shares held in Wood’s key exchange-traded fund at the end of February, the month when the stock marked its recent peak. Nintendo made up 1.55% of the fund at that time. 

The selling tracks a 28% slide in company’s share price from that peak, as investors fret about a slowdown in sales of the mainstay Switch console. Analysts have been unimpressed by the latest iteration set to launch on Friday, which features an OLED screen but no significant improvements to hardware. The long-awaited addition of the stock to the Nikkei 225 Stock Average has also failed to provide a boost.  

CLSA Securities Japan Ltd.’s Jay Defibaugh last week became the second analyst with a sell rating on Nintendo, double-downgrading the stock to underperform from buy. He said the Switch is “on the cusp of a multiyear slowdown,” and expects this cutting to cut operating profit in half between now and March 2024.

Ark’s strategy regularly involves selling some of its winners to invest in other targets. As the firm trimmed its Tesla stake last year, Wood told CNBC it was “wise portfolio management” to control position sizes.

Ark’s daily trading update reflects portfolio changes made by its investment team and excludes creation and redemption activity and public offerings; for this reason it may not fully reflect all of the firm’s trades.

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