Author: Rachit Vats

SKLZ – Cathie Wood's Ark Says Aarki Acquisition Should Accelerate Skillz's International Expansion Goals

Written by Rachit Vats on . Posted in SKLZ, Stock Report.

Cathie Wood-led Ark Investment Management believes Skillz Inc’s (NYSE: SKLZ) purchase of Aarki, an adtech demand-side platform (DSP), will boost the mobile gaming company’s international expansion goals.

Skillz shares soared as much as 30% last Wednesday after announcing a $150 million in cash and stock acquisition deal.

The New York-based hedge fund Ark said Aarki has significant exposure in the United Kingdom, India, and South Korea.

Ark owns over 22.66 million shares in Skillz divided between Ark Innovation ETF (NYSE: ARKK) and Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (NYSE: ARKW), worth about $481.1 million as of Friday’s close.

Skillz is a mobile games platform that enables competitive eSports-style play that hosts billions of casual esports tournaments annually.

See Also: Why Cathie Wood Is Bullish On Skillz

Aarki says it engages in more than 5 trillion advertising auctions monthly with machine learning algorithms and data engines that help advertisers maximize customer reach and acquisition. 

The acquisition should also lower Skillz’ user acquisition costs and boost monetization of the existing monthly active users (MAUs), Ark Invest said in a note. 

The acquisition is expected to close in Q3 2021.

Price Action: Skillz shares closed 4.33% lower at $20.31 on Friday. 

Latest Ratings for SKLZ

Date Firm Action From To
May 2021 Canaccord Genuity Maintains Buy
Apr 2021 Jefferies Initiates Coverage On Hold
Feb 2021 UBS Initiates Coverage On Neutral

View More Analyst Ratings for SKLZ

View the Latest Analyst Ratings

© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

DOCU – Ark Invest On DocuSign Says Confident Pandemic-Induced Transition To e-Agreements 'Not A Temporary Shift'

Written by Rachit Vats on . Posted in DOCU, Stock Report.

Cathie Wood-led Ark Investment Management believes the e-signature company DocuSign Inc (NASDAQ: DOCU) could continue pulling more customers beyond the COVID-induced transition to online electronic agreements.

What Happened: The San Francisco, California-based company’s shares jumped 19% on Friday after reporting strong earnings, surpassing expectations on both revenue and earnings. It also raised guidance for the second quarter and fiscal year. 

The New York-based investment firm Ark, which holds about 2.59 million shares, worth about $503.9 million, in DocuSign, said it believes the company appears to be gaining traction in international markets and the growth in its Agreement Cloud amid COVID-19 is not a temporary shift. 

“Additions to the management team and clear strategic roadmaps have bolstered our confidence in the company,” the investment firm said in a note.

DocuSign offers the Agreement Cloud, a broad cloud-based software suite that enables users to automate the agreement process and provide legally binding e-signatures from nearly any device. The company was founded in 2003 and completed its IPO in May 2018.

Why It Matters: Online or electronic agreements have become increasingly popular with organizations during the pandemic.

BofA Securities had in April estimated that DocuSign will “continue benefiting from a strong adoption cycle, stemming from demand for a cloud based solution which reduces contract execution cycles time from weeks to less than a day.”  

See Also: Why BofA Is Bullish On DocuSign Stock

Price Action: DocuSign shares closed 19.76% higher at $233.24 on Friday. 

Photo by Cory Doctorow on Flickr

Latest Ratings for DOCU

Date Firm Action From To
Jun 2021 Citigroup Maintains Buy
Jun 2021 Wedbush Maintains Outperform
Jun 2021 Morgan Stanley Maintains Overweight

View More Analyst Ratings for DOCU

View the Latest Analyst Ratings

© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

IOVA – Why Cathie Wood Is Bullish On Iovance Biotherapeutics (IOVA)

Written by Rachit Vats on . Posted in IOVA, Stock Report.

Cathie Wood-led Ark Investment Management is betting that despite recent setbacks Iovance Biotherapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: IOVA) will benefit from its compelling tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) immunotherapy.

What Happened: IOVA shares have declined 32% since Tuesday after the California-based biotech startup delayed its Biologics License Application (BLA) until the first half of 2022 because of FDA feedback on its potency tests.  

The delay in the program is attributed to the FDA’s second request for additional data regarding potency assays, which are a series of tests that prove the company can consistently manufacture the product in question.

Soon after, IOVA announced CEO Maria Fardis is leaving the company after five years in the role and that General Counsel Frederick Vogt would be stepping in as interim CEO. Shares fell 39% on Wednesday after the announcement. 

The New York-based investment firm started piling up shares in the company last week and holds 18.26 million IOVA shares, worth about $450.64 million, according to Ark’s data as of Friday’s trade.

The Ark Genomic Revolution ETF (BATS: ARKG) and the Ark Innovation ETF (NYSE: ARKK) carry the stake in IOVA.

See Also: Cathie Wood Loads Up Yet Another $51M In Coinbase As Shares Slump Amid Bitcoin-Led Crypto Carnage

“We believe that Iovance’s TILs will continue to be the most compelling therapy for solid tumors in the market and that Iovance has the most robust TIL data set,” the Cathie Wood-led firm said in a note to investors.

“Furthermore, in our view, Iovance is trail-blazing the FDA regulatory process and likely will get FDA approval for its TIL therapy to treat melanoma, a very difficult-to-treat disease with high unmet need.” 

Price Action: IOVA shares closed 3.73% lower at $18.05 on Friday. 

Latest Ratings for IOVA

Date Firm Action From To
May 2021 Piper Sandler Downgrades Overweight Neutral
May 2021 Chardan Capital Maintains Buy
May 2021 JMP Securities Maintains Market Outperform

View More Analyst Ratings for IOVA

View the Latest Analyst Ratings

© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

COIN – Cathie Wood Loads Up Yet Another $51M In Coinbase As Shares Slump Amid Bitcoin-Led Crypto Carnage

Written by Rachit Vats on . Posted in COIN, Stock Report.

Cathie Wood-led Ark Investment Management on Friday snapped up another 223,181 shares, worth about $50.7 million, in Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN) as the cryptocurrency exchange stock staged a fresh dip.

Shares of Coinbase, which have fallen 31.7% since its blockbuster debut last month, closed 3.88% lower at $224.35 on Friday. 

Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s apex cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, traded as low as $31,227.34 in 24 hours leading up to press time, erasing over 50% of the gains from the all-time high.

The New York-based investment firm, which has been accumulating shares in the crypto exchange, made the trade via the Ark Innovation ETF (NYSE:ARKK) and the Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (NYSE:ARKW). 

The hedge fund also owns Coinbase shares in its ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (NYSE:ARKF).

See Also: Cathie Wood Buys Another $59M In Coinbase As Bitcoin Recovers, Entirely Cuts Apple Stake

After Friday’s trade, the popular hedge fund which counts Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) as its largest holding, has lifted its Coinbase stake to 4.23 million shares. Based on Coinbase’s Friday’s close, those shares are worth about $987.9 million.

ARKK and ARKW, which counts Tesla, Square Inc (NYSE:SQ), Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) among others as its top holdings, has Coinbase as its tenth largest holding in both ETFs. In ARKF, Coinbase is the twelfth-largest holding. 

The investment firm also bought 4,908 shares, worth about $1.38 million, in software company Autodesk Inc (NASDAQ:ADSK). The Space Exploration & Innovation ETF (BATS:ARKX) bought the shares.

The California-based Autodesk’s shares close 0.18% higher at $281.68 on Friday.

Some of the other key Ark Invest sells on Friday included Tencent Holdings (OTC:TCEHY), Guardant Health Inc (NASDAQ:GH), and buys included Signify Health Inc. (NYSE:SGFY), Iovance Biotherapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:IOVA) and 908 Devices Inc (NASDAQ:MASS).

TSLA – Elon Musk Slips From Second Position In The Rich List As Tesla Shares Continue To Slump

Written by Rachit Vats on . Posted in Stock Report, TSLA.

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has lost his spot as the world’s second-richest person in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

What Happened: Musk, the technoking and master of coin at Tesla, has seen his financial fortune slip as shares of the electric vehicle maker extended losses over the previous week on Monday, dropping 2.2% lower.

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA (OTC:LVMUY) Chairman Bernard Arnault passed Musk on the Bloomberg rich list, with a net worth of $161 billion.

Musk now has a fortune of $160.6 billion, down 24% from its January high. The serial entrepreneur’s fortune has dropped about $9.1 billion this year, the most among U.S. billionaires, as per Bloomberg.

Musk, whose Twitter posts are closely followed by investors, media and fans, last week took to Twitter to announce Tesla would stop accepting Bitcoin payments over concerns of the cryptocurrency’s environmental impact.

The automaker began accepting Bitcoin in March after earlier purchasing $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency in February. Musk later clarified that the electric vehicle company had not sold any Bitcoin. 

Tesla’s nearly 750% jump in stock price last year helped balloon Musk’s wealth, making him the richest person in the world this January, ahead of Amazon.com Inc’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Jeff Bezos — although not for long.

Why It Matters: Despite reporting record first-quarter profit, the Palo Alto, California-based company’s shares have since fallen by about a fifth amid a global semiconductor shortage, increasing competition from traditional automakers and EV startups, and regulatory concerns in China weighing on investor sentiments.

Musk, who does not draw a salary from Tesla, is set to mint billions if Tesla stock hits ambitious market capitalization and operational milestones. 

He gets to add stock equal to 1% of outstanding Tesla shares every time certain milestones are hit and there are 12 such tranches, or milestones, outlined in his package, six of which have already been unlocked.

Price Action: Tesla shares, which have fallen 18% year-to-date, closed 2.19% lower at $576.83 and were down 0.85% in extended hours.

Read Next: Elon Musk’s Mood Swings Split Bitcoin Market Into Paper Hands And Diamond Hands, Shows On-Chain Data

TTD – Why Cathie Wood Is Bullish On The Trade Desk Despite Past Week's Slump

Written by Rachit Vats on . Posted in Stock Report, TTD.

Cathie Wood-led Ark Investment Management is betting ad-tech company Trade Desk Inc (NASDAQ: TTD) will benefit from the shift in advertising from linear television to streaming.

What Happened: The California-based company’s shares are down 21.8% since the company reported a first-quarter earnings beat a week ago.

The slump came as the company, which specializes in helping companies buy online ads, didn’t provide earnings guidance for the next quarter due to uncertainty over Apple Inc’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) new opt-in advertising rules. It also announced a ten-for-one stock split with shares to start trading on a split-adjusted basis on June 17.

Apple recently started rolling out a rule that it introduced last year, requiring app developers to use a pop-up notification asking permission to gather data that can be used to track users across third-party sites and apps.

See Also: Apple Prepares To Expand Ad Business Amid Allegations Of Stifling Rivals: Report

The New York-based investment firm Ark, which has been buying shares in The Trade Desk, a rival to Alphabet Inc-owned (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google, is however optimistic despite the stock’s recent battering. 

“The Trade Desk is an ad-tech company that facilitates audience targeting across different media formats and should continue to benefit from the shift in advertising from linear TV to streaming,” the Cathie Wood-led firm said in a note.

The Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (NYSE: ARKW) holds 215,413 shares in TTD, worth about $106.3 million.

The Trade Desk is the seventeenth-largest holding of ARKW. No other Ark ETF holds shares of the ad-tech firm

Price Action: TTD shares closed 4.86% higher at $517.49 on Friday. Shares have fallen 35.5% on a YTD basis.

© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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