Last week was challenging for most investors. The three major market indexes moved lower for the fourth consecutive week. Growing investing icon Cathie Wood — the founder, CEO, and primary stock picker of Ark Invest’s family of ETFs — has historically used pullbacks to load up on falling favorites, but she was surprisingly quiet this time.
Ark Invest added to only three existing positions last week. She bought shares in Figma (FIG 2.02%), Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings (ARCT 1.34%), and 10x Genomics (TXG +0.00%). Having a light hand as many of her stocks corrected is unusual for Wood, but it should also find investors hungry to understand why she chose these three names. Let’s take a closer look at Wood’s latest Ark Invest purchases.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Figma
One of the hottest IPOs out of the gate last year has cooled down in a major way. Figma, a provider of website design for websites, apps, and other digital formats, has plummeted 83% from last summer’s highs, a peak it achieved after more than quadrupling from its original $33 offering price.
Figma stock is one of the many cloud-based platforms getting slammed by a dramatic shift in market sentiment. The bearish narrative has providers of premium software-as-a-service (SaaS) stocks eventually coming under competitive pressure from cheaper, if not free, artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.
Today’s Change
(-2.02%) $-0.49
Current Price
$23.73
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$12B
Day’s Range
$23.08 – $24.15
52wk Range
$19.85 – $142.92
Volume
8.6K
Avg Vol
13M
Gross Margin
82.43%
But Figma’s popularity isn’t waning. Revenue growth actually accelerated in its latest quarter. Year-over-year top-line growth hit 40% in the final three months of last year, up from a 38% increase in the previous quarter and well above the 35% rise it was initially projecting. The shares popped higher on last month’s blowout quarter, only to give back those gains — and then some.
Its net dollar-retention rate of 136% is stellar, indicating that returning customers over the past 12 months are spending 36% more on the platform than they were a year earlier. It’s Figma’s healthiest showing on that front in two years.
Figma is dealing with margin pressure. Its lack of reported healthy profitability has also prevented the creation of a floor for investors. Analysts see revenue growth slowing to 30% this year and 20% next year, but it’s one of the more compelling broken IPOs of last year.
Arcturus Therapeutics
Today’s Change
(-1.34%) $-0.09
Current Price
$6.63
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$188M
Day’s Range
$6.54 – $6.81
52wk Range
$5.85 – $24.17
Volume
15K
Avg Vol
492K
Gross Margin
95.41%
2. Arcturus Therapeutics
Ark didn’t make any stock purchases on Monday or Tuesday of last week. Wood bought just one company on Wednesday, and this was it. She then added to her Arcturus Therapeutics stake in each of the final three trading days of the week.
Ark has plenty of biotechnology stocks on its scorecard, and Arcturus keeps a pretty low profile. Revenue has fallen sharply in each of the past three years. Its top line is expected to be cut in half again this year.
However, most emerging biotechs aren’t about the past or even the near future. Arcturus uses messenger RNA tech to develop therapies for rare respiratory and liver diseases. Earlier this month, it announced its fourth-quarter results. The numbers weren’t great, but it had positive news for some of its candidates going through clinical trials. It also revealed that it recently expanded its cash runway, giving it until at least the second quarter of 2028 before its bleeds through its current reserves.
10x Genomics
Today’s Change
(0.00%) $0.00
Current Price
$18.38
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$2.3B
Day’s Range
$18.10 – $18.64
52wk Range
$6.78 – $23.56
Volume
1
Avg Vol
2.5M
Gross Margin
70.38%
3. 10x Genomics
Investors associate the term 10x with a company delivering a tenfold return. 10x Genomics is close, at least in terms of its long-term revenue growth. The provider of life sciences tools has seen its top line rise in seven of the past eight years, a ninefold increase over that period.
Unfortunately, shareholders haven’t seen that kind of jump. 10x Genomics went public at $38 six summers ago. It’s currently trading for half that price.
10x Genomics developed the Chromium platform, which has emerged as the top choice for businesses seeking single-cell genomic analysis. It offers solutions for whole-genome sequencing, single-cell transcriptomics, and exome sequencing. This is an important market in Wood’s eyes. Ark owns several genetic sequencing stocks.
Two things are holding 10x Genomics back right now. The first is that it has never been profitable, and analysts don’t see profitability happening on a reported basis anytime soon. The second pressure point is that its own guidance for this year calls for revenue to decline in 2026. 10x Genomics notes that its guidance implies a 0% to 4% increase, excluding nonrecurring licensing and loyalty revenue related to patent litigation settlements last year. It’s a fair exclusion, but even then, it’s not impressive growth.