4 Stocks That Cathie Wood Dumped in March

Investing

Published: April 3, 2021 6:55 am

Many investors have been following the ARK Invest saga with great anticipation about what Cathie Wood will buy next. Recently, the group introduced another exchange-traded fund (ETF) for space exploration, and although it had a lackluster debut, investors have been moving into it since. However, there is another side of the ARK Invest trade that not as many investors are paying attention to.

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While everyone was hyped about Wood’s recent call on Tesla suggesting that the stock very well could go to the moon, some major components of the ARK Invest ETFs have been slowly disappearing.

24/7 Wall St. has combed over each of the ARK Invest ETFs for the top sells in the month of March, and we have highlighted four stocks that have been vanishing. What’s astonishing here is that there are some big names, and even bigger questions as to why Wood would be cutting stakes in these firms.

PayPal

Because it has been around for a long time in the digital payments space, PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) is one of the more popular names in fintech. Despite an impressive year-over-year performance, with the stock up about 153%, PayPal shares are only up about 4% year to date and actually down close to 10% in March alone.

In March, ARK Invest ETFs sold approximately 2.89 million PayPal shares. Note that there were a couple purchases at the beginning of the month, but these were quickly reversed.

PayPal stock traded near $248 on Thursday. It has a 52-week range of $89.88 to $309.14, and its consensus price target is $308.19. PayPal has a market cap of $290 billion.

Facebook

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) operates the most widely known and used social media platform on the planet, and that should be reason enough to hold a stake in the company, as it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. With more people moving into the digital space over the past year and working from home, Facebook has become a prime medium for human interaction and monetization.

While Facebook is a staple in many value investors’ portfolios, its performance has not kept pace with some of the more exciting growth stocks. Facebook is only up about 8% year to date, just a couple percentage points above the S&P 500. Just keeping pace is not Wood’s style, and we saw that with her trades in March.

During March, ARK Invest ETFs sold 596,027 shares of Facebook, with the largest single-day sale totaling just over 150,000 shares.

The stock closed out the week around $300 a share. Facebook has a 52-week trading range of $150.83 to $304.67, with a consensus price target of $338.72. Its market cap is $853 billion.

Netflix

Another stay-at-home stock that may have run its course is Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX). With the end of the pandemic in sight, many people are looking to get off the couch and back into the world.

One thing that highlights Netflix in this group is that its stock is actually posting a loss year to date, with shares down over 3%. Even in the past 52 weeks, the performance is muted compared to other momentum stocks, with shares up only about 39%.

ARK Invest sold 226,420 shares of Netflix in March. The largest single-day sale was over 114,000 shares.

Netflix was trading around $531 a share and has a market cap of $236 billion. The 52-week trading range is $357.51 to $593.29. Analysts on average have a $259.81 price target.

Apple

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) seems like the most unlikely name to be on this list as it is easily one of the most popular stocks out there. However, a closer look at its stats would explain Wood’s move to back off the stock.

Of this list, Apple is actually the worst-performing stock year to date, with shares down 8%. Even though shares have practically doubled from this time last year, the reopening trade doesn’t appear to be taking off for the iPhone giant. Note that some other analysts are very bullish on Apple looking ahead to this fall with a potential supercycle.

In March, ARK Invest ETFs sold 152,023 shares of Apple. This isn’t that many shares relative to other names on this list, but shaving down a position for a stock such as Apple does bear some significance, or at least signals a lack of bullishness.

Apple stock traded near $123 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $59.22 to $145.09. Its consensus analyst price target is $25.83. Apple has a market cap of $2 trillion.