Ark Investment Management’s Cathie Wood may be associated with the idea of high-flying shares, but that doesn’t mean she likes so-called meme stocks.
Investors underappreciate the exponential growth rates possible for some technology companies, Wood said at the CFA Societies Australia 2021 Australian Investment Conference on Thursday. Her funds are looking for “the next FAANGs,” she said, referring to mega-cap tech stocks like Facebook Inc., Apple Inc. and Netflix Inc.
Meme stocks, which have captured retail-investor interest in particular this year, are more like GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.
“I guess the only one people might consider a meme stock that we own, or have ever owned, is Robinhood,” said Wood, who is Ark’s chief executive officer. Most meme stocks “are dinosaurs,” she added.
Wood’s funds surged last year and early into 2021 as they made tech-heavy bets that prospered amid the pandemic. But some of her wagers—such as Ginkgo Bioworks Inc.—have struggled, and her flagship Ark Innovation ETF recently saw one of its biggest quarterly outflows ever.
Wood reiterated her bullishness on Bitcoin, noting that if institutional investors allocated 5% of their portfolios to the digital currency it could add $500,000 to the price. Ark has lent its name to an exchange-traded fund tracking Bitcoin futures, according to a filing Wednesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
—With assistance from Andreea Papuc.
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